Brothers in Arms
by hockeychic92
Summary: The UNSC sends one final attack for to destroy the brutes completely. But, when nearly the entire attack force is destroyed, it's up to the few survivors to finish their mission...
1. Chapter 1

**Sorry, guys! I meant to delete a different story but accidently deleted this one. So, here it is again.**

* * *

Dominic listened to the pelican's roar as it flew gracefully through the air. The sound of men's chatter filled the passenger compartment of the drop ship along with the explosions outside. One hit dangerously close to the ship, making it swing wildly and fly off course.

He opened his eyes quickly and gripped his restraints as all the loose items, including his ODST helmet, flew around the compartment. The other ODSTs yelled loudly as the ship once again regained control but was hit again. This time it wasn't as wild and the pilot kept good control.

Dominic couldn't believe they were sending troops into an area so hot this way. He would've thought they'd drop them in; in their HEVs.

After the war had ended, Covenant brutes were continuing to make problems for the UNSC. Mostly small attacks on supply frigates or colonies. But, the UNSC was trying to assure humanity that the threat was gone and the attacks made that difficult.

So, HIGHCOM made the big decision to send in several hundred ODST teams to the brute home world to destroy them once and for all. The Sangheili also agreed to send in some of their troops to help. But, the rest of the marines were needed to keep order in the highly unstable UNSC.

Their mission: to locate and help the fleet target major cities all across the planet. They would then use the Sangheili ships to glass the cities until the brutes were defeated. Their leader had said that the brute home world had several, vital resources that humanity needed and didn't have. Should they led the Sangheili glass the entire planet, the resources would then be lost.

Dominic, was one of the thousands of ODSTs sent in to attack them. He was told the planet was very earth-like with a good climate and temperature. But then again, it was crawling with hostile aliens, so he wondered how good it could possibly be. He was also told there were several hundred volcanoes and lots of volcanic activity. That would make for an interesting battle.

Another explosion rocked the ship back and forth violently, shaking him from his thoughts. He watched as the back gate and attached warthog were blown off and they were exposed to the planet outside.

It was nighttime and raining heavily and soaked the tropical forest underneath them. They could the mortars of several anti-air wraiths as they fought to bring down the troops. One succeeded, and they watched a pelican plummet down into the trees.

Dominic up from the scene just in time to see his helmet fall out of the pelican, disappearing among the trees. He sighed and gripped his battle rifle fiercely as the ship was hit once again, this time, severe damage was noticed.

The left engine was blown out and the pelican then turned violently to the left and down toward the trees. Dominic and the others yelled as they watched the forest disappear and was replaced with the rainy sky above them.

Dominic clenched his eyes as the ship crashed among the trees and he lost consciousness.

* * *

"Dom! Dom, wake up!"

Dominic opened his eyes slowly and realized he was upside down! His eyesight was blurry and unfocused and ringing was the only sound he heard. He felt hands tugging at his restraints and then a curse.

He started to focus and saw one of his teammates pull out his knife and start cutting away at them. First his left side, then his right, and then he felt himself drop quickly and into the arms of his friend.

Once again he found himself in a blurry sea and fought for focus. The ringing was subsiding and he could hear his friend talking to the ODSTs around him. But more importantly, he heard gunfire.

"—push them back! Rico, Mike, help me with Dom!" Then Dominic felt several hands set him down against the back of the pelican. He could see that about half the people who'd been on the pelican were dead, the rest were fighting brutes hidden in the trees. Again he heard his friend and then knew the voice.

Captain Felix Marksman. The commanding officer of his four-man ODST team. The rest of them were Lance Corporal Rico Múnez, Sergeant Mike Rotman, and Corporal Dominic Rostad. He smiled now as he remembered them. He remembered hearing Rico and Mike's names, so they must still be alive.

A brutes stick grenade then flew toward the men, landing on the ground in front of the soldiers in the downed ship.

"Sticker!" someone yelled loudly. He watched all of them duck behind a crate they'd moved over in front of the opening as the grenade exploded, sending the spikes flying through the air. He last remembered seeing that crate strapped to a wall, the very one he was sitting against.

He looked next to him and saw where they'd cut the straps and had pulled it away to used for cover. Another explosion outside the ship woke him again.

"Ah, crap," he muttered to himself as he crawled over to one of the bodies. He pulled off the man's helmet and made sure it wasn't too bloody before putting it on. The HUD was still working and showed about six red dots in the trees in front of him. Crouched, he moved over to the crate and joined his teammates in firing at the monsters. Mike looked at him and smiled as they fired together.

Dominic used his HUD and aimed carefully at the aliens and then let loose a barrage from his weapon. The bullets struck the creature on the head, denting its helmet and hurting it badly. Again, he fired and hit the creature in the head. The monster's helmet flew off and it roared in defiance. Dominic smiled slightly and cut the roar short with three bullets placed perfectly in the brute's mouth, not even chipping a tooth with his accuracy. The monster tumbled to the ground but Dominic was already focused on another target.

After several more minutes of the fighting, all the brutes were lying dead in the mud. Dominic stood in the upside down pelican and looked at his teammates and the other surviving ODST.

Felix stood as he reloaded his weapon and immediately started barking orders. "Okay, listen we've got to get out of here. This place will be swarming with brutes." He then pulled out a pistol and fired at the hinges on the crate and flung it open. Inside, was extra ammo, armor, and food. "Alright, this is good. Take all the ammo you can carry. Each of you grab three days worth of food and if you need new armor take it. Who knows how long we'll be here and I don't think we'll ever come back here."

Felix grabbed his own food and then stepped aside to let the others grab their own food and supplies. Dominic replaced his bloody helmet with a new one, grabbed a suppressed M7S Case less Submachine Gun along with lots of ammo for both his weapons, and then grabbed his food.

Silence filled the compartment of the dead and living. The pounding rain outside was the only sound…

… until the flight radio in the cockpit crackled to life. Dominic stopped along with the others and listened.

"—under fire—coming in hot—going down—reinforcements…" the radio then crackled loudly and the mixed reports were mixed with the sound of static. Then, a weak voice sounded over the radio, suggesting it came from the orbiting fleet above them.

"All units: we will be continuing to drop in reinforcements and vehicles. The Sangheili fleet is right behind us and you'll be seeing them soon. Remember your mission, find their cities and get their coordinates. The future of humanity depends on you, good luck. Signing off."

Then static was the only noise.

The other men looked at Felix silently as he watched the rain outside, and then turned toward them. "You know our mission," he said quietly. "We find their cities, and destroy them." Then, he turned toward the rainy forest outside. "So let's go."


	2. Chapter 2

Dominic stumbled through the slippery forest in the middle of the night. The heavy rain soaked each of them down to their bones and made it an arduous trip. He tripped over a large root sticking out of the ground and grunted loudly, making the others turn.

As he stood the mud clung to him like a parasite, making his once perfectly black armor turn brown. Felix shook his head and probably rolled his eyes behind his helmet. Then he stopped and looked at Dominic more closely.

"Good thinkin', Dom!" Dominic heard over his helmet's speakers. Felix continued so everyone could hear. "Everyone, cover yourselves in mud, we'll blend in better!"

"You gotta be kiddin' me!" yelled Mike.

"No questions, soldier! Roll in the frickin' mud!" yelled their CO.

Dominic laughed at the sound of the groans and complaints as they all rubbed mud all over their armor and uniforms.

"Sir, you do realize that it's rainin' right? I mean, this stuff's gonna wash off anyways," said Rico.

"He's got a point," said the fifth.

Everyone stopped and looked at him silently. They'd yet to hear his name or what team he was with. Felix asked the question.

"What's your name, boy?" he said in the rain.

The other man kept rubbing mud on his arms as he said, "Tanner. Sergeant Tanner Colton."

Felix digested this for a moment and then stepped forward to shake the other man's hand. "Pleasure to meet, ya." He then went on to introduce each of the other three and himself. Then he asked, "What team are you supposed to be with?"

"The dead guys in our pelican were the rest of my team. I was the only one that survived," Tanner said casually.

Felix patted his shoulder and nodded. "I'm sorry to hear that. You stick with us now. You'll be alright."

Tanner nodded and hefted his assault rifle menacingly. "I just wanna get revenge now."

"You will. You will." Felix then turned away from him and rubbed more mud on himself before looking up at the night sky. "The clouds are passing over. It should stop rainin' soon. Let's get moving again. Keep it slow, we wanna save our energy."

"Yes, sir!" yelled back his team, plus Tanner.

Dominic walked up next to Tanner and shook his hand. "I'm Dominic. You can call me Dom," he said with a smile, even though his helmet made it impossible to see it.

Tanner nodded. "I know. Good to meet, ya." He looked away and then looked back at his new friend. "You ever lost a team?"

Dominic shook his head. "No. I joined up towards the end of the war and I only fought in the Battle of the Ark. These guys have been my only team."

"Good, I'm glad," said Tanner.

Dominic picked up his pace to catch up to Felix. He was second in command and needed to stay updated on everything.

"Sir? What if we get split up?" he asked.

"No. No splitting up. I don't care how much it might help," said Felix as he ducked under a branch.

Dominic ducked the same one and asked. "But what if we do?"

Felix stopped and turned to face him. "Then they've either been captured or killed. I said we stick together so if anyone's missing. We go find them."

"Yes, sir," said Dominic, satisfied with his leader's answer.

Felix was a strict leader. Not so much that he wasn't fun to be around, but enough so that when he said an order, it was followed to the letter. It was more about respect than fear though. He'd fought right beside Master Chief and for that his team and many others respected him enough to follow orders without question.

The rest of the team, Dominic included, liked to joke around and have fun. Felix was fine with this and encouraged it. But when they were in hostile territory in combat, no joking whatsoever. This kept them focused, but also a close group of friends who knew each other very well.

A clap of thunder boomed overhead and lightning illuminated the forest for a moment and Dominic spotted the other two. Mike and Rico were friends before they joined the marines and it showed. They did everything together and were the best duo the marines had. They were currently walking side by side, helping each other through the dense jungle.

Dominic smiled in the rain and pressed forward. Another clap of thunder boomed over them, but the rain seemed to lighten up. He smiled and looked at his teammates and then at Felix.

His helmet was scanning the forest back and forth and he was speaking to someone on his headset. After a couple moments, he stopped and started yelling at whoever was at the other end.

Dominic stopped the others and told them to wait as they listened to his rant.

"You cannot ask the men to complete this mission! Not with our numbers! Call it off!" he yelled. There was a long pause and then his head bowed. "No, sir…yes, sir. I'll tell them… Thank you, sir. This is Alpha, over and out."

Felix then turned and looked at his team, who were staring at him in confusion.

"What's goin' on, sir?" asked Rico quietly.

Felix sighed and shook his head as he gripped a tree. "It seems… their anti-air defenses were more effective than we thought. More than half of us were killed on approach." The other men gasped in shock and shook their heads. "But…that's not the worst of it," interrupted Felix. "Besides that, the brutes were quick to respond to any other survivors and attacked them before they could set up a good defensive system. Now…there's only five teams of us."

This news was answered with silence. Dead silence. Dominic shook his head and sighed deeply. Only five teams. That made for maybe thirty or so men. Possibly less.

Then, he remembered something and looked at his captain. "What about the Sangheili? They're supposed to be coming too. Right?"

Felix sighed again. "Yes. But they were held up. Apparently the brutes also still have several small fleets that were hidden in an asteroid belt that the Sangheili passed on the way here. They were ambushed and are currently fighting to shake them. Now, we're on our own."

The five men sat in silence again, the rain the only sound heard around them. Dominic watched the water drip off the large leaves surrounding them and make puddles of mud on the ground. He was also aware that some of his mud have washed away but was left was a brown tint on him. This distraction was much appreciated. Then, he snapped out of his trance and looked at the men surrounding him.

"What do we do?" he asked.

Felix stood and gripped his battle rifle with purpose. "We still have the mission. It's the only way to achieve peace in the universe and we're the only chance for that. Now, we continue with the mission. Find their cities, destroy them, and then we can go home."

Mike stood waving his arms for Felix to stop. "No way! I'm not staying here! This is brute hell! There's thirty of us…maybe! I'm calling a pelican!"

His captain jumped towards him and gripped him by the throat harshly, desperation now taking over his actions. "Fine! You do that, smart one! Then every brute from here to hell will know where we are! You'll kill us all! They're on high alert and are watching the sky closely. Any attempt to save us will either be stopped…or they'll use it to find us and kill us."

Mike growled and shook his leader off of him. Rico stepped forward, brandishing his pistol. "You're way out of line! No way you can be grabbing him by the throat like that!"

"What's he gonna do?! Kill me?!" yelled Felix.

"Darn right I will!" yelled Mike. "Maybe I'd be doing the five of us a favor by cutting it down to four," he hissed.

Dominic, seeing the situation spiraling out of control, stepped between the two of them. Tanner gripped Rico's shoulder and put a hand on Mike's chest.

Dominic yelled over them. "Shut up! Shut up! It won't matter in a minute 'cause every brute here is gonna hear you yelling!" he yelled a bit too loudly himself. This quieted all of them and they looked at him. Felix panted loudly and Mike growled and pushed Tanner away from him. "Guys, you see what's happening?" asked Dominic.

Silence.

"We're stranded here! There's only a handful of us on this entire planet! If we start killing each other now, the brutes won't even have to worry!" he said harshly to all of them. Then he quieted and calmed his voice. "We have got a huge responsibility here. We have to protect the peace of the universe. We're a team; all of us. And we need to band together now to get the job done. Okay?"

The rain was the only sound heard between the men. Rico slowly moved Tanner's hand off his shoulder and stepped back a step. Mike looked down at the ground and nodded slowly. Dominic looked at his captain.

"What do ya say…sir?" he asked, holding out his fist.

Felix ignored the gesture for a moment, then slowly punched the hand with his own fist. "Fine," he said. Dominic nodded and stepped back, making it a circle around their leader. "But first thing's first," said Felix. "we've got to find the other groups. There's thirty of us and we need to get together and figure out what we're gonna do. After that, then we'll get down to business." He looked at Mike slowly and cleared his throat. "And…I am sorry…about your neck."

Mike nodded and chuckled slightly. "I'm sorry about threatening to kill you."

The apology sounded so strange that the group had to share a laugh over it. Then, they all nodded and Felix cocked his weapon loudly.

"Looks like we got us a game of hide-n-seek waitin' for us. Let's not miss it."


	3. Chapter 3

Dawn began to break over the foreign planet. The retreating rains left a thick layer of fog in their wake. Mobilizing brutes breathed in the familiar air and smiled to one another. This was their home. They knew it better than anyone. And the last five demon teams would be dead before their sun was highest in the sky.

They jumped into their prowlers and choppers. Phantoms loaded with the monsters and took off to drop them throughout the forest. The captains and chieftains rallied their troops with promises such as; whoever kills the first human can have him for his feast.

The brutes were still in weak from the previous war. But there were over a hundred thousand of them, and thirty humans. Even the dumbest brutes could smile at those odds and know what it meant.

This would be nothing more than a routine hunt.

* * *

Dominic sighed as Felix stopped them in their run. The fog around them kept them slightly cold but hydrated and more comfortable than if it had not been there. Felix stopped now and spoke out on the long raged radio in his captain helmet. They were broadcasting to try and find more marines out there.

"All ODST units, this is Alpha. Requesting for a full rendezvous in a currently unknown position. Please advise, over." Felix listened and looked around for a minute and then stopped with a growl. "They're not responding."

The other ODSTs around him shook their heads and Dominic looked up. The thick canopy of leaves, branches, and foliage was enormous. He could barely see the sun overhead.

"Is the signal getting through?" he asked his captain.

Felix punched a tree viciously and looked at Dominic. "'Is the signal getting through?' What's that supposed to mean?" he asked angrily.

Dominic pointed up. "These are weak radios. I doubt they have the strength to broadcast through that."

The other ODSTs looked up at the foliage and nodded silently.

"You gotta point there, Dom," said Rico with a smile.

Felix shrugged. "What do we do?"

"We could get somebody to climb up there with the radio and then broadcast from atop the tree. That way they'd be over the foliage," concluded Tanner.

Felix looked at Rico and Mike. Grudgingly, he took off his helmet and handed it over to the two men. "Climb up there. You're the only ones that can do it. And be quick about it!" he said before turning away to face the forest around him. "I gotta bad feeling."

Mike and Rico nodded and looked at a large tree behind them that towered over its neighbors. "You got it, boss!" they said simultaneously.

Dominic watched them ascend and then looked at his captain. He had light brown hair that was cut down to a buzz cut and a bit of stubble around his face. A more recent marking he hadn't seen was a large cut, running down the entire length of the left side of his face. From his eyebrow to his chin.

"Sir—" started Dominic.

Felix waved a hand to stop him. "I've been through worse." Just then, a large branch fell from overhead and knocked his weapon out of his hand. Felix turned around, enraged, and yelled up to them. "Yo! Ladies! Could you be anymore clumsy?!"

"Sorry, sir!" came the distant reply.

Grumbling, Felix bend down and grabbed his weapon. Tanner and Dominic shared a quick laugh over the outburst before hearing a distant noise.

An engine. A large, deep roar in the distance that only meant one thing: brute patrols.

Felix, Dominic, and Tanner ducked behind the large trees roots and watched as three choppers burst through the trees, taking down any young or dying ones. A prowler followed a moment later, followed by eight foot soldiers jogging behind them.

Felix growled and reached up to try and tell Mike and Rico to stay still, but then remembered the absence of his helmet. He grabbed Dominic and whispered, "Tell Mike and Rico to shut up. Now!"

Without responding to his captain, Dominic reached up and keyed his mike to talk to the two of them. "Guys, we've got a huge patrol down here. Quit moving."

"But we're almost to the top!" insisted Rico quietly.

"Don't attract any attention to yourselves! They'll see!" said Dominic, watching even more troops trudge through the broken foliage.

"Roger that," muttered Rico.

Dominic then let his hand drop and gripped his submachine gun in a fierce grip. Just then, a leaf dropped down and rested on the barrel of his gun, distracting him. He angrily keyed his mike and whispered harshly, "Guys, quit moving! You're making leaves drop!"

"We aren't moving!" replied Mike.

"Well, something's goin' on 'cause—crap!" Dominic whispered as a couple of brutes started walking towards them. "Don't move," he whispered as he ducked further down himself.

The large tree's roots hid them well enough, and the fog made them even harder to see. Dominic closed his eyes for a moment and prayed the brutes would remain ignorant of their presence.

The two sniffed the air quietly and looked around them in silence. The only sound between the five of them was the sound of the brutes sniffing the air and the sound of the animals in the forest calling out. Dominic held his breath and tried not to breathe in their stench. Tanner whimpered slightly.

The monsters were nine feet tall and the ODSTs were lying on the ground, making them look all the more terrifying and menacing. Then, they watched as a lone leaf drifted down from the tree overhead and land on the ground in front of the brutes.

"Brother," grunted one to the other. "Look."

Dominic gripped his submachine gun and looked at Felix next to him. His captain was slowly drawing his eight inch blade from its sheath and Dominic and Tanner mirrored his movements silently.

The brutes looked up into the canopy above them and raised their spikers. "Put a few rounds up there to be sure," said one.

Then, like lightning, Felix leapt out from behind his hiding place and jammed the knife into one of the brutes' neck. Tanner did the same to the other as Dominic keyed his mike.

"Guys, send out the signal! Now! We've got problems down here!" he said harshly.

"Roger," replied one of them.

He then helped his two companions drag the towering beasts behind the tree and hide them from immediate sight. There were still very large blood stains on the ground that had already sunk into the dirt and could not be erased.

"What do we do?" asked Tanner.

Then, out of nowhere, Mike and Rico dropped down from the tree and landed next to them. Their captain nodded to them and looked as more brutes started to approach in the distance. Choppers, prowlers, and foot soldiers appeared all around them as they started their patrols.

They were surrounded.

"Run!"


	4. Chapter 4

Dominic looked at Felix in shock as he screamed the word. Mike and Rico were only too happy to oblige and tore through the brush away from the tree. Tanner and Dominic were the last to stand and run.

Behind them came the roars of a brute captain as he realized some of the ODSTs were right under his nose. They heard him roar, fire his brute shot, and scream to his brutes, "Kill them!"

This spurred all five of them into a dead sprint, waking aching muscles. Dominic inwardly groaned to himself as he hopped over tree roots and rocks.

Several molten hot spikes flew past him and Tanner a moment later. Seeing no other option, he and Tanner ducked down behind a tree root and panted loudly. In front of them they could see Felix, Rico, and Mike stop and turn around to return fire on them.

Dominic nodded to himself and jumped up to join them. The patrol behind them was about twelve brutes. He watched four get gunned down from their firing, but even more brutes were approaching from behind them.

With a growl, he grabbed a grenade from his armor vest, pulled the pin, and threw it at the mass of aliens. The explosion killed two, but did less damage than he'd hoped. Felix yelled from behind them, "Fall back! Get better cover!" Dominic fired another burst at them and then turned to join his teammates in the retreat.

After a few minutes of the run, they once again turned and fired at the brutes. This time their damages were fewer though. Dominic panted in the waning light as he reloaded his gun during his sprint. Low branches, leaves, roots, and other obstacles were constantly in his way, making the once simple task arduous.

Ahead of him, he could see the opening of a clearing coming up, and thanked God. Behind him though, came the roar of, what was currently, their worst nightmare.

A chopper.

The vehicle burst through the trees on his left, knocking trees and branches in the fleeing soldiers' way. Together, they burst into the clearing, where the sun's last few rays bathed the open ground. Dominic looked away from the roaring vehicle to his left, for just a moment, and then heard a huge thunder as the ground beneath them shook, knocking him to the ground.

He looked again, to see the smoking carcass skid to a halt in the dirt. A thick smoke trail led back up into the top of a tree on the other side, from which another missile flew out toward their enemies behind them. Confused and desperate, Dominic simply focused on sprinting to the trees.

He scrambled to his feet, feeling brutes spikers fire at him quickly. When he finally reached the trees, he turned and once again joined his teammates in firing at the brutes. Several sniper shots cracked through the silence, each from a different location in the trees.

Dominic looked at the thin vapors trails slicing through the brute patrol in wonder. More marines? He hoped so. He forgot it as he raised his submachine gun again and fired into the mass.

The patrol had somehow grown to the size of twenty of the monsters. It surprised him at first, but then again, it _was _their home planet. A spike flew through the air and wedged itself into the tree next to him, waking him from his trance. With a growl, he fired into the brutes angrily and watched as more snipers shots and rockets sailed through the air to kill their enemies.

After several minutes of the skirmish, the patrol lay dead on the ground in large bloody heaps. Dominic sighed and reloaded as he sat against a tree. Felix walked up and sat next to him to rest.

But it would be short lived.

Another roar pierced the tense silence as another patrol started making its way toward them. Felix stood once again and helped up Dominic. The rest of their team, and other ODSTs they'd never met, came over to join them.

One, stepped forward and said quickly, "Yo! We gotta go! There's more of 'em comin'!"

Before he'd even finished his statement, he and several others started to turn and flee from the scene. Dominic and Felix shared one last look behind them, seeing the large leave rustling, they too turned and ran.

The leaves hit his helmet harshly as Dominic sprinted through. The ever present obstacle of large roots and other foliage hampered their movement more than they would've liked. He risked one look behind them to see if they'd caught up to them, but saw nothing.

Instantly, the ground in front of them dropped down to a steep hill. Dominic grunted and groaned as he rolled with control. A large rock hit his helmet, cracking the glass of his faceplate.

_Perfect_, he thought to himself angrily.

After several seconds of the abusive journey down the hill, he slowly rolled to a stop in a muddy, bruised heap. He hurt too much to move and opted to lay there and catch his breath. But his faithful teammates weren't going to give him that chance. Strong arms grasped him and hauled him away from where he'd stopped and started dragging him to a safe place.

An unfamiliar voice crackled through the radio for all to hear. "We crashed near you guys! We have a hideout over this way! We'll take you there," it said.

"Good," said Felix. Dominic grinned to himself. At least Felix was okay.

The ground was all he could see but told him where they were going. The mud he'd been lying in changed to leaves on the ground, then dirt, a stream, and finally was replaced by grass. Shade on the ground told them they were under the trees and he didn't know how long they'd dragged him through the foliage, but he didn't care.

Then, finally, they stopped and lowered him to the ground again. He muttered a thank you, but doubted they heard it. He felt himself turned over until he was looking up at a canopy above him and two helmets. His own helmet was removed and for the first time in several hours he heard the real world with his own ears again.

"He okay?" asked a voice.

"He's fine," said Felix as he removed his helmet, revealing his large cut. "He's just a sleeping beauty."

Dominic couldn't resist. "No more than you, Scarface."

Felix pretended to be mad and lightly smacked him on the head. "The fall made you delirious, boy. Come on, sit up," he said, holding out his hand.

Dominic took it gratefully, and Felix helped set him against a tree. For the first time since his fall he sighed and looked around him. His team sat next to him with their helmets removed, concern on their faces. Around them were more ODSTs. Six at least.

"More of us," muttered Dominic.

Felix nodded. "Yeah. Hold on I'm gonna ask them where they came from." His captain then stood and walked over to talk to one of them. Mike and Rico gripped his shoulders.

"You okay?" they asked.

Dominic nodded and smiled. "I'm golden."

Silence then settled between them until Felix came back later. He sat next to the four of them and sighed.

"He says they've been designated Delta Squad. They crashed about a mile away from us. Six of them are here. Three of them are scouting out the way to their hideout. That's also a mile away. We're headed there next."

"What about the other teams?" asked Tanner.

Felix sighed. "He said they've got us in five teams. Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Omega. Right now, we've got…" Felix did the math in his head. "…we've got fourteen guys. The other half of us are somewhere out there. They said they made brief contact with Gamma and Beta, but Omega's been missing for some time now."

"Are they…you know," muttered Mike. "Dead?"

Felix shook his head quietly. "I don't know. But I know this: we need to stick together. There are only thirty of us and there are thousands of them. The only way we can pull this off is if we keep in close and protect each other."

"Guerilla?" asked Rico, earning him strange looks. He nodded. "Guerilla warfare. We could fight that way."

"We will," said a delta ODST, joining the conversation. His helmet was still on and his uniform was covered in dried blood. He ignored their disgusted looks and instead of explaining, he stuck out a bloody hand. "Sergeant Bradley Trekker at your service."

Felix looked the hand over before grasping it and giving it a shake. "Captain Felix Marksman. This is Alpha Squad."

Bradley's helmet tilted slightly and he hesitated in responding. "Oh, _you're _Alpha! We thought we'd lost you!"

Felix smiled. "Nope. We're still here." He looked over the man's bloody uniform and nodded to it. "Who…what's all that?" he asked.

Bradley seemed just to notice if for the first time and looked at it. "Oh! Yeah, this was a brute. Tried to kill my friend over there," he said as he pointed to another ODST sitting on a rock. "Obviously, I took care of him." He laughed then.

Dominic grimaced and looked to his left. A waterfall was nestled amongst large trees next to cliff about a quarter mile away. That looked like a better hideout, but theirs was supposed to be farther away. It didn't matter though.

They needed to find the rest of the ODSTs. He grinned slightly and looked at their new friend.

_At least we've crazy Bradley over there to chop up our enemies._


	5. Chapter 5

A while later, Dominic stepped into their hideout. It was a cave, but not the same as the one next to the waterfall. It rested next to a large river and cliff a ways away. The river tumbled over the cliff, filling a small lake below. A path led down to a cave sitting behind the streaming water. It was exactly like the other cave really, but in a different location.

He looked around the damp interior of the cave and listened to the waterfall's roar fill the cave. It was definitely big enough. He looked to one side and saw that the Delta Squad had already made themselves at home.

Rucksacks, spare weapons, and food were lined up next to the damp wall. He looked up from them and realized they had very little food and they'd completely forgotten their rucksacks. He sighed and set his battle rifle next to the others, but held on to his silenced SMG.

Felix walked up next to him and sighed. Dominic looked at him. "How will the other groups find this place?"

Felix looked at him. "They said when they made contact they gave them the location of the cave. Gamma just called back. Said they'd found the cave and they were going back to their pelican to bring back more supplies. Beta also called, saying they were on their way."

Dominic nodded and pursed his lips. "Looks like Delta's been thinkin' ahead."

Felix nodded. "Yeah. Delta also said that if Omega didn't call soon or we can't get in touch with them, we'll activate their homing devices."

Dominic looked at him in shock.

The ODST armor was equipped with several features to mask their signatures and make them extremely difficult to find. But, each uniform was equipped with a homing beacon in case of emergencies. This was added after the Human-Covenant War, after they'd lost several men and women because of the stealth systems in their armor. The problem with it was the signal sent out from the suits could be intercepted by anyone.

And when Felix said they were considering activating the homing devices in the ODSTs' armor, Dominic knew that if that signal went out every single brute could find Omega Squad. Not only that, but they could find where the signal went to. Meaning, if they activated the beacons from the cave, they were compromised.

So, he voiced his concerns. "Sir, their signals—"

"I know, I know. They can be intercepted or found, jeopardizing the lives of Omega. I know," he said sadly. "But we don't have much choice. They're not responding and their stealth systems make them too hard to find."

Dominic stepped in front of his leader. "Sir, don't let them activate the beacons. Even if it does work, and we find them, the brutes could've found them first and they'll be dead."

Felix shook his head. "It's not my call." He then walked away.

Dominic understood what he meant. The Delta leader was going to activate the beacons, so his fight was with him. In anger, he stomped over to the leader and stopped him.

"Sir, you cannot activate those beacons," he said as calmly as he could.

The leader looked at him and took off his helmet, revealing a pale, angry face. "Who are you?" he hissed.

Dominic removed his own helmet. "Corporal Dominic Rostad."

The leader towered over him. "Well, _Corporal, _I'm Captain Victor Treip. And you, are way out of line."

Dominic summoned all his courage and spoke to the giant. "Sir, if you activate Omega's homing beacons, we're dead."

Victor growled. "I know the brutes can intercept the signal, you idiot. That's why I'm going to activate them from somewhere else."

Dominic shook his head. "But what about—"

"Omega getting discovered?" Victor finished. Dominic nodded. "We'll have to get to them first."

"But…every brute who hears that signal will be all over us. Even if that's only fifty brutes, that's way too many for us to fight."

Victor stepped forward so he was directly down into Dominic's eyes. "That's why we're going to use stealth to disappear after we find them." He glared down and lifted his lip in a snarl. "This conversation is over."

Dominic let him leave with a sigh. Whatever Victor did, it would have them in for a big fight. He turned away and walked over to his team.

They were all sitting down with the rest of Delta Squad next to the edge of the cave. He sat next to Tanner and Felix and buried his face in his hands.

"No luck?" asked Felix.

He simply shook his head in his hands and groaned. "He's gonna get us all killed."

Felix sighed. "But, we do need Omega." He patted his friend's shoulder. "Look, I'm not condoning what he can or will do, but I understand where he's coming from. I don't see any other option."

Just after he'd muttered his last word, Gamma and Beta stumbled into the cave. Dominic looked up and looked at the muddy, weary soldiers trudging through the cave. Felix stood to go help some of them and figure out who was who.

Victor also stepped forward. The other twelve men of Alpha and Delta then stood to welcome the newcomers.

Victor started shouting to them, "Who's your leader?"

An old man who'd apparently lost his helmet raised his hand. "Sir, I'm from Gamma. And he was killed. In the crash. I'm next in command. Master Sergeant Red Brooks."

Another raised his hand and removed his helmet. "I'm the captain of Beta. Kent Croy. They call me K.C."

Victor dismissed the last statement and looked at the two leaders. "How many are in your teams?"

Brooks counted. "Six in Gamma."

K.C. did likewise. "Three in Beta."

Victor did the math in his head and looked at the other twelve around him that made up Alpha and Delta. "Okay, five in Alpha. Three in Beta. Nine in Delta. And Six in Gamma. That means here, we have twenty-three soldiers."

Felix finished the other man's thought. "So Omega must have around seven or eight. Now we just gotta find 'em."

The Gamma and Beta leaders looked at him. "You don't know where they are?"

Felix and Victor shook their heads. "They don't answer any calls we send out to them and they don't send any to us," said Felix.

Victor stepped forward and rested his assault rifle over his shoulder. "We're going to activate their homing beacons and go find them."

The other two leaders paled and looked at him. Brooks started to speak, but Victor held up a hand to stop him.

"Hold that thought, we're going to have a meeting with all of us." He then raised his voice and filled the cave with it. "Men! Gather 'round! I have news for all of you!"

Dominic glared at him as he towered over all the others and waved them closer. When they were surrounding him and hushed, he bellowed, "We're going to find Omega."

Several cheers broke out of the group, as some of them had friends in Omega. Dominic stayed quiet though.

"To do this," continued Victor. "we're going to activate their homing beacons."

With this news, the assembly hushed slowly and someone shouted, "That's suicide!"

Victor nodded. "I know this idea seems very dangerous, but listen. We're going to come up with a plan to find them and then set out. Once we're far away from our base, we'll activate the beacons. That way, the brutes can't track us back to our hideout."

"But what about Omega? They'll be discovered!" shouted Tanner.

Victor glared at him. "I know. It's a risk we're all going to have to make. We'll then, triangulate their position and extract them."

This brought out roars of disapproval and anger that filled the cave. Dominic looked around him and grinned, maybe now he would actually reconsider his plan. But Victor had other ideas.

He raised his arms and quieted the group. "Men, listen. We can do this. We've done even more amazing feats before. Now, we must prove to the galaxy what more we can do. Saving Omega, is only one small part of the job, we must stop another war." Dominic looked around and saw the men's faces changing to pride in themselves rather than anger at Victor. The speech continued, until at last, the assembly raised their fists into the air with a shout and decided that they would do as Victor asked.

Felix, standing next to Victor sighed and his head dropped down in sadness. Unless they pulled off a miracle, many of them could be killed.


	6. Chapter 6

Dominic looked around him after the speech. The men had gone and were putting on extra camouflage brought in their rucksacks and pockets. Alpha, who'd lost their gear, was at the base of the waterfall, covering themselves with the mud. Dominic finished quickly after simply rolling in the much and now entered the cave again.

Victor stood at one end of the cave making sure the radio worked so they could activate the beacons. Despite his disliking of the man, he figure he should go over and help him. He wanted to make sure there were no malfunction so no more men would lose their lives.

"Need any help, sir?" he asked.

Victor turned and frowned at the sight of his new enemy. But he needed help. He pointed to a large radio sitting on the ground. "Yes, bring that over here."

"What is it?" asked Dominic, as he carried it over.

"It's a long range radio. We'll use it to contact the frigates over head to bombard the brute cities. Now, shut up and bring me that keypad," retorted Victor.

Dominic couldn't resist and asked, "What's _this_?"

Victor put his hand on it, but didn't fully take it from him. "It's an electronic keypad containing a digital map of the planet that can be loaded onto each of your HUD's. We found it on a pelican along with the radio."

Dominic didn't let him take now when he pulled. "How will you load it onto our HUD's?"

Victor still held on to the device but reached behind him and pulled up a smaller radio. "That's what this is for." Then, he ripped the electronic keypad from Dominic and turned around to further inspect the devices. "Go get ready."

Dominic shrugged and turned away to see all the activities in the cave.

Those missing armor or gear were given some leftover or found by the teams. The rest of the men were readying themselves according to their role in the fight.

Snipers put on ghillie suits. Men with SMGs, who would be close in to the fight, were putting on extra armor. Men with battle rifles or other medium range weapons were loading up with ammo. Heavy duty soldiers with rocket launchers were camouflaging their weapons and themselves, and bringing along their helpers to do the same.

Dominic figured he should load up with extra armor, but also grabbed extra ammo. Then, he spotted something: slime. He reached into it with his glove and felt it slip through his fingers. What was left was a thick, dark green spot on his brown glove. Muck mingling with mud to make great camouflage. He knew that the paint was in short supply, and decided to use the slime to better camouflage himself. Grabbing handfuls of the slime, re rubbed it all over himself and his weapon, covering the areas with the green leftovers.

He smiled to himself and stood. He didn't even smell like a human. Rather, he smelt awful. That way though, the brutes couldn't smell him out.

Just then, the rest of Alpha walked in to the cave and Dominic showed them his findings. They didn't want to, but eventually gave in, and started rubbing themselves down with the slime.

"At least we're in armor and we can't feel it," said Rico.

Victor then stood to make another announcement. The excited men gather quickly around him in a hushed tone. He stood above them with a smile and held his camouflaged helmet under his arm.

"Move out!" he simply shouted. "Stay in a group, we'll be depending on each other to win this fight!"

The men gave one, quick roar, and then ran from the cave and out into the forest.

* * *

Dominic was pissed off now. They'd been trudging through the forest and still, he hadn't activated the beacons. Maybe Victor was going to try and find them the old fashioned way. But then again, maybe he was just trying to put some distance between them and the cave.

It didn't matter. Victor's voice crackled over their radios. "Okay, I'm gonna send you a map of the area and then we're going to activate the beacons. Keep track of each other. As soon as that signal goes out, it's game time."

Silence filled their helmets then and the group all hunkered down into the bushes. Then, a signal filled each of their ears, and on their HUD, appeared a map of the forest.

Dominic didn't know they had this much information on the area. Everything was extremely detailed.

Then, on the map appeared nine blue dots. They were very far from the ODSTs' current location and the area around them was swarming with red dots, brutes. After a few seconds, some of the wandering red dots started to turn and converge on the blue dots. Meaning that Omega would be under attack soon.

And if they didn't move fast enough, they would be dead.


	7. Chapter 7

Dominic looked at the sinking sun in the distance. A small smile tucked at his mouth, they worked best under the cover of night. He looked away and focused on the ground in front of him.

All twenty-three ODSTs were sprinting toward the location of the nine trapped Omega teammates. They showed up to be still over a mile away. Their blue dots on the HUD were flashing repeatedly, showing them firing at the surrounding brutes. Dominic watched it in his peripheral vision and prayed he didn't see a blue light disappear.

Thunder boomed overhead and lightning lit up the sky, momentarily exposing the ODSTs sprinting through the trees. It also showed Dominic a large root sticking up that he would've tripped over. He hopped over it quickly and resumed his exhausting sprint toward Omega.

He checked the distance on his HUD after a few minutes and saw they were only a few hundred yards away from the site of Omega's fight. Victor sent out the halt signal and immediately everyone stopped. Dominic panted loudly in his helmet and listened to the quiet around him.

Then, he heard it, the sound of the gunfire and explosions in the distance. He listened to the noises and looked at the camouflaged ODSTs around him in the darkness. Then, a command reverberated through his helmet speakers.

"Clearance to engage," it said with little emotion.

The command triggered the activation of instincts and impulses within each and every ODST. Dominic switched his HUD and sound system to his team network. Felix's voice filled his head saying, "Lock and load. On me."

Dominic watched through his HUD as his leader rose and was highlighted in blue with a NAV point above him. On his HUD, every ODST was highlighted in blue but the rest of his team, and only his team on his HUD, had the NAV points. He watched the other four triangles move through the bushes ahead of him before finally standing himself and following.

Their mission was to flank the enemies on the right after the initial attack by the other ODSTs had already begun. Hopefully, there would be fewer enemies around the side. Meanwhile, Gamma would sneak around the left side of the battle and help Alpha reach Omega. Then, they Alpha and Gamma would work together to help the wounded ODSTs fight out of the battle and get home.

The problem with the plan, well, the biggest one, was that they didn't know what the terrain was like around Omega. They could be trapped up a cliff with no way down. Or stuck in a steep valley with the Covenant firing down into them.

Dominic shook his head and followed the NAV points ahead of him. They would worry about that when they reached the sight of the battle. And from the beeping in his helmet, that would be soon. A large NAV point appeared in front of him, counting down quickly.

It must be Omega's NAV point.

He sprinted all the harder and watched the numbers rapidly drop down. When they were in the twenties, and the sounds of the fight filled his helmet speakers, Felix had them slow to a slow walk.

"Crouch," he ordered quietly through their team system.

Dominic obeyed silently and dropped down. His teammates' forms were invisible to the naked eye, but he watched them through his HUD as they moved slowly through the thick foliage. Ahead, an explosion lit up the forest in front of them, blinding Dominic momentarily. He squinted through the glare and watched his teammates press forward.

The map on his HUD showed that a slight drop off was ahead. Several hundred yards away was a large hill covered in foliage. If he were leading Omega, that's where he'd have them. As they drew nearer, more of the map appeared, showing the hill completely surrounded by red dots.

As he reached forward and moved back a large branch, he saw for himself how many brutes there were. A bolt of lightning exposed a crashed pelican rested on the hill. Apparently it had landed several hundred yards back and slid to a stop halfway up the steep hill and next to a huge boulder that made something like a small cliff. The large scar cut out of the land was filled and surrounded by brutes as they fired at the drop ship.

Dominic shook his head and looked at it all. It reminded him of the World War II D-Day. From the top of the boulder, near the pelican, small arms fire could be seen. His HUD highlighted the small forms of the ODSTs of Omega in blue. A sniper rifle crack filled the small valley they were in, and Dominic could see the vapor trail pass through a brute chieftain.

Felix's voice sounded through his helmet, "Let's move toward the right and wait for the assault to start. Then, we'll wait for Delta One to give the go-ahead." Delta One was Victor's codename.

Dominic stood slowly, but still watched the fight. The hundred or so brutes continued to fire at and move in on the small force of humans next to the pelican. For the most part, Omega had held them back well enough, but more reinforcements would be there soon, and that would be enough to tip the scales in the Covenant's favor.

A rocket shot away from the cliff, and hit a prowler in the side with a large explosion that killed more than the passengers. Another shot away and hit a wraith that already had a fair amount of damage. The large vehicle exploded in a blue ball of fire that shook the ground.

Dominic forced himself to look away and watched his teammates sprint through the bushes and toward their place in the line. A couple moments later, they stopped and crouched down again as a light rain began to fall. They sat at the top of a small rocky outcropping overlooking part of the valley.

Another brute vehicle exploded in the rain, lighting up the valley once more. The small arms fire from the top of the cliff like structure started to slow down though. The brutes noticed, and started their push up the hill.

Dominic readied for the run to the top of the hill, and waited for Victor to give the order. After a few seconds, he heard it.

"Open fire!"

From the bushes, and trees surrounding the valley filled with brutes, small arms fire exploded in all directions. As Dominic fired, he was surprised at how much fire twenty-three men could hammer down at once. On his HUD, he could see that they'd stretched the line all the way across the valley so they appeared to have more men than the brutes, but he knew better.

At least a hundred brutes turned around to face the fire raining down on them. Their roars then joined the roar of the weapons around them as they returned fire in a fury. Dominic tore his eyes from the valley in front of him and focused on the brutes in front of him he was firing at.

There weren't as many for Alpha as there were for the rest of the teams, but there were still many more than their five man team. He grit his teeth and fires his suppressed SMG quickly into the mass. Felix sent another order through their team COM system.

"Lay down! Use the cover of the rocks!" he yelled, the sound of his firing weapon penetrating the system.

Dominic obeyed, and as he reloaded lay down behind several large rocks in front of him. Plasma, and spikers hit the rocks around him and above him, and he silently thanked Felix for the decisive order. The rain started to pour down on the marines fighting to save their companions in the darkness.

Dominic reloaded and looked around him to see the ground was quickly becoming a muddy hole. The rocks were getting covered in mud from the sloshing made by the fighting men. The ground around the brutes was also getting muddy. The valley made a bowl that was already filling up with the water running down from the surrounding forests and hills. Dominic watched the water rush past him as he slammed the magazine into his weapon.

Victor's voice crackled over the COM system, "Get ready to move. Start clearing yourselves a path."

The marines in Alpha stood from their hiding places to get better views of their targets. The brutes further to their right noticed them for the first time as they started stepping out of the bushes. Dominic ducked just in time as a spike grenade flew out from the left.

Through the thunder of the battle, he could barely hear Victor's voice through the COM system again. "Okay, Gamma, Alpha, up that hill! Go, go, go!"

The order spurred the walking pace of Alpha into a sprint. Dominic ran past two brutes, ducking under one's huge arm and filling his chest with his lead bullets. The other brute met the same fate moments later. He spotted a brute running up behind Tanner, spiker grenade armed.

Dominic started to run backwards up the hill and fired at the brute. The rounds hamburgered the monster's face, making it drop the grenade next to two other brutes, killing them too. Dominic smile and turned around again to face other brutes.

Alpha continued up the hill at a quick pace, not even stopping to kill surrounding brutes. After a few minutes of the heart pounding, leg burning sprint, they made it to a rocky outcropping at the top of the hill.

Dominic jumped behind a large boulder, reloaded, and then turned to kill the pursuing brutes. Felix's voice sounded through the COM system again, "Alpha Four and Five, stay back to cover us until there aren't any more pursuers. The rest of you, on me."

Rico and Mike crouched down on either side of the path they ran up, getting comfortable as several brutes attempted to run up toward them. Dominic followed Felix and Tanner through the rocks and bushed and toward the site of the pelican and rocky outcropping.

Dominic sighed as he reloaded his SMG and ran behind his friends. The sound of small arms fire boomed in front of them as they crouched through the rocks. Felix spoke, "Keep low, and be on guard. These guys have been fighting for hours, startle them, and they may mistake us for brutes." Tanner acknowledged quickly, and Dominic did a moment later.

Then, they came to the sight of the crashed pelican. It was still ablaze in places, and had debris from it strewn all over the top of the hill. Dominic looked around and could see a body lying next to its massive form, mangled beyond comprehension. A few dead brutes lay nearby as well.

Felix's highlighted form pointed to their left and toward the top of the rocky cliff that overlooked the blood-filled valley. Laying on top of it, were eight marines firing down below them. That meant there was one unaccounted for. Tanner caught on, and whispered, "Where's the last marine?"

Felix shook his head and looked behind him. "They must've posted him somewhere else. In case the brutes penetrated the camp."

Dominic nodded and turned around to face the debris and bushes. "Think he's back there?"

Felix shook his head once again. "I don't know. But I know one thing, we need to get these guys out of here."

There was a crackling noise in front of them that made the three of them drop to the ground behind cover to face the danger. To their relief, Gamma appeared. Well, two of the Gamma group. Dominic guessed that the rest of them were covering their rear.

Dominic tuned into their radio frequency and listened as Felix briefed them.

"Gamma," he started. "where's the rest of your squad?"

"Covering the rear," replied one of them, as Dominic guessed they would.

"Okay, most of them are firing down from that cliff," said Felix, pointing to the marines. "One of them is missing. Did you see him on the way up?"

The two looked at each other. "Yes. Well, we saw a body."

Dominic closed his eyes and sighed. Felix did the same. "Very well." He turned and looked at Tanner and Dominic. "Two and Three, go and inform Omega of our presence."

"Yes, sir," they replied at the same time. Dominic crouched and walked over to one of the Omega marines as he reloaded. The ODST helmet swiveled his way and the marine jumped violently. Dominic tried to calm him.

"Easy, easy. We're from Alpha. Gamma is also here protecting your flanks and helping get you out of here," he said quickly but clearly.

The marine stayed still for a moment and then nodded. He crawled over to his leader, who was holding a sniper rifle and aiming carefully.

"Sir!" the marine shouted.

The interruption caused the CO to miss his mark. The man turned and smacked the younger marine's helmet viciously.

"What the hell's the matter with you, boy?!" he yelled in a deep southern accent. "Don't you know not to bother a man when he's shootin'?!"

The marine stuttered, "B-b-but, sir—" the marine then simply turned and pointed at Dominic and Tanner.

The CO crawled past his teammate and ordered, "Take my place. And you owe me a kill for that dumb mistake o' yours."

"Y-yes, sir!" said the other marine as he took his leader's place.

When he was far enough away from the ridge, the other ODST stood and gripped Dominic by the arm, dragging him away from the cliff.

"Well, it's mighty fine seein' you boys here!" he said.

Dominic nodded and Tanner said, "Good to see you're still alive!"

"Psh!" said the other marine. "It's gonna take more than a few butt ugly brutes to take us down!" he said loudly. He then proceeded to spit over the ridge and down into the swarming brutes beneath him. "Bastards…" he then stuck out his hand. "Name's Tex. But I ain't from Texas."

Dominic shook the strange marines hand. "Okay… I'm Dominic. This is Tanner. We're from Alpha."

Tex nodded and pushed past them. "Well, where's your CO?!"

Tanner leaned in close to Dominic. "Talk about southern hospitality!"

Dominic stifled a laugh and pointed toward Felix as Tex turned to face them. "That's

Felix. He's our Captain."

"Well then he's my new best friend!" yelled Tex.

Dominic shrugged as the peculiar soldier jogged over to his CO. Tanner walked back down after him to listen in. A loud boom shook the ground beneath him, making him stumble and reach out for support on the rocks.

Static filled his ears as Victor attempted to communicate with them. Finally, he broke through. "Abort, abort! Alpha, Gamma, Omega, phantoms inbound. At least two. Evacuate the hilltop _immediately_."

In his ears he heard a yell saying, "Alpha One, this is Alpha Four…mayday, mayday! Brutes storming the hill…ah…we're pinned down! Requesting assistance!"

Felix nodded. "Roger that, assistance is on its way." He looked at Dominic and Tanner. "Two, Three, go help Four and Five!"

"Yes, sir," they responded.

Tanner ran past him and back down the path they'd run up to get to the top of the hill. Dominic followed but watched to two large blue forms of the phantoms as they flew in. Gunfire in front of him jerked his attention that way.

Rico and Mike were crouched down behind the same two large boulders. All over the path were dead brutes and a few small craters. They were pinned down by a large number of brutes storming up the pathway.

Tanner was the first to respond. He dove behind a large pile of large rocks and primed a frag grenade. As he did so, he yelled to Dominic, "Cover me!"

The brutes down the pathway then found themselves under a hail of bullets from an unknown source. Seconds later, a grenade detonated in the middle of them, throwing bodies, limbs, and weapons into the air in a bloody explosion.

Rico jumped up and fired into the mangled mass before sprinting past Dominic and Tanner to safety. Dominic then yelled to Tanner, "Cover Mike so he can run up!"

Once again the brutes were under a relentlessly hail of bullets, but they started to zero in on the source. One of the ones they'd had pinned down then stood from where he'd been trapped and started to run up the hill. They attempted to kill him in his flight, but the covering fire above him was too great.

Mike made it to safety.

Dominic then watched as several more marine came up from behind them and fired down into the mass. He guessed it was Tex or Felix and some of Gamma coming to their aid. Minutes later, the brutes mass had been pushed back to the base of the hill.

Felix sent out orders. "Gamma, I need some of your men to cover this pathway. We're going to try and find a way down."

The Gamma CO responded, saying, "Roger that! Gamma Two and Three, you're with me covering the path."

Dominic watched the leaders exchange orders as he, Tanner, Mike, and Rico sat down together behind cover. They reloaded and thanked each other for the covering fire or a helping hand. After a few more minutes, their COM system was invaded by Victor's voice again.

"Mayday! Mayday! Brutes have redirected fire on our position! Please advise!" he yelled.

Dominic shook his head. If he wanted to be such a great leader he should learn how to make decisions in stressful situations. But it didn't matter.

Another report came in. "Three phantoms inbound after the previous two. Their cargo was at least thirty reinforcements. That's most likely what these three are carrying. And from my position, it looks as though they're about to charge on your position again."

That startled Dominic. Felix and Tex looked at each other.

Tex shook his head. "There ain't no way we can last split up like this."

"So you want us to go down there?" asked Felix.

"Hell no! Sounds like we'd have to fight through most of their army to do that! No they should come up here!" he said, pointing to the ground beneath his feet.

Felix shook his head. "That's suicide! We'd all be trapped up here!"

"We could mount a proper defense against their charges and wade it out! Then, before they get new reinforcements, evacuate." He crossed his arms and shrugged. "That's your only option right there."

Felix keyed his COM system but hesitated to give the order. Tex shrugged again, giving him no answer, but enough to make him speak.

"Delta One," he started.

"Listening," said Victor.

"Omega One and I have decided the best option rite now would be for you and the other squads to come up here."

"Are you nuts?! Alpha One I requested advice not a suicidal opinon."

"That's our only option. We're pinned down up here but not taking on heavy losses. Sounds like you're under heavy fire. We'll cover you as you run up but that's our only shot!"

A long pause stretched between the two leaders before Victor grudgingly replied, "Roger that."

Dominic shook his head and looked at the ground with a sigh. They were trapped.


	8. Chapter 8

Tex gripped Felix's shoulder a moment later.

"How many men we got up here?" he asked in his southern drawl.

Felix counted the men he saw. "Well, Alpha's go five. Gamma six. And you guys have nine."

Tex drew back. "Nine? We have nine but he got killed in the initial charge."

Felix looked at him for a moment before continuing. "So you have eight. Eight plus five is thirteen. And thirteen plus six is nineteen."

"How many does our buddy Victor have down there?" asked Tex, resting his assault rifle on his shoulder.

"Well uh…thirty-one minus nineteen is twelve. So Victor has twelve guys with him."

Tex nodded and looked out over the valley. "Good. We'll almost double our numbers up here."

Victor's voice sounded again. "Alpha One."

"Listening."

"Delta and Beta have moved on your left. I repeat, your _left. _We're next to the base of the path that you guys took to get up there. We can see a small skirmish going on between maybe three soldiers and at least twenty brutes. Please advise."

Felix looked at Tex, who nodded without hesitation. "Delta One, you are to storm up the pathway while the rest of us up here cover you. After that, we will set up good defenses so we can hold out against their charges."

"Roger."

Felix nodded. "On my mark."

Then, he switched frequencies and spoke to everyone at the top of the hill. "Marines, Beta and Delta are about to join us up here. We need to cover them. Omega, stay where you are and cover the front hill. Alpha, we're going to assist Gamma One, Two, and Three in covering them as they come up here. Gamma Four, Five, and Six, stay where you are covering the right pathway. Everyone understood?"

"Sir, yes, sir!" the eighteen marines responded.

"Get to your positions!" Felix yelled. Tex crouched and went over to join the rest of his squad in covering the front hill. Alpha went to their positions and then everything was in place. Felix then switched back to Victor's frequency. "Delta One, everything's set up here. Wait for my mark."

Dominic crouched next to Mike and Rico behind a large pile of boulders on the path they'd been fighting to defend. He listened to Felix breathe into the mike before finally saying that one faithful word.

"Mark."

Delta and Beta burst from the tree line behind the brutes fighting on the path, firing into their backs. Dominic and the rest of Alpha unleashed a hail of bullets down on the brutes between them and the other two teams as they pushed past. He could pick out the distinctive sound of a shotgun as brutes were picked away between the two fighting groups.

It several minutes, but after a short, bloody fight, all thirty-one marines were reunited. They panted together and fired a few last shots at the retreating brutes of the previous fight and into the fresh brutes coming to replace them.

Victor walked over to Felix and sat down, resting against a large rock. Tex then joined them. Followed by the Beta leader, K.C., and Gamma's aging leader, Red Brooks. Dominic watched from a distance as they spoke.

After a few minutes, Felix waved Dominic over to join them. He marched over and quickly executed a stiff salute to the five of them on the ground in front of them.

"Alpha Two, we're going to have a meeting to discuss what to do. All their second in commands are dead. You're next in command beneath us. We need you to set up suitable defenses until we're ready. Understood?"

"Yes, sir. Understood, sir," he said quickly. Then, without another word, he turned and marched off to do his duties.

Tanner approached him and took off his helmet. "What's the word?"

"I'm next in command after them. So I'm supposed to set up suitable defenses here on the hill so we can survive long enough to go home."

Tanner nodded. Then, he looked down and chuckled. "Strange. This was supposed to be an easy pickup and evac. Now, we're stuck on this hill with no way off."

Dominic nodded silently and keyed his mike. "Marines, this Alpha Two. I'm next in command so while our leaders decide what to do, I'm in charge of setting up defenses." He paused and licked his lips. "Okay, Omega, stay where you are and continue to defend the front hill, you're doing fine up there."

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir," replied an Omega marine.

"Gamma Four?"

"Yes, sir?" the marine answered.

"Any resistance down there?" Dominic asked.

"Nada. They've mainly been focusing on the left path. We've hardly had anyone. But this hill down provide a good side view of the valley and what they're doing!"

"Good. I want to switch you out and put Beta in your place. Beta, understood?"

"Yes, sir," replied a Beta marine.

Dominic nodded his decision. The side with the fewer enemies gets the team with the fewest men. And without their leader, Beta only had two. Which gave him a thought. If that hill provided a good view of the valley and they weren't constantly being attacked, maybe it would be a good sniper outlet.

"Are there any sniper rifles available?" he asked.

One of the Beta marines responded, "I have one!"

Dominic nodded to himself and asked again, "Any others?"

Without responding, a Gamma marine handed him his sniper rifle with a nod and then walked back over to the rest of his squad. Dominic handed the rifle to the other Beta marine before giving out more orders.

"Gamma, cover the left hill." He looked at the large Delta squad in thought. "Rest. We'll hold you in reserves for now."

They nodded solemnly and sat down amongst the rocks and debris.

"What about us?" asked Mike and the rest of his team.

_What about us? _Dominic asked himself. He tapped the trigger guard of his weapon in thought. "Um…Alpha Four and Five…go cover the left path with Gamma."

"Yes, sir!" they shouted enthusiastically.

He watched them run down the path before saying to Tanner, "You cover Beta. Watch their flank in case any brutes try to sneak around them." Tanner executed a salute and jogged after the two lone snipers.

Then, Dominic was alone. In way, anyways. Around him raged a ferocious battle that could kill them if they weren't on their guard. But he now stood alone in the middle of their camp.

His loneliness didn't last long. Felix's voice filled his ears.

"Alpha Two, come here," his captain said.

He obeyed, and hefted his suppressed SMG as he joined them. They stood in a circle, talking out the situation as leaders. When he approached, they stopped and looked at him.

"Defenses secured?" asked Felix.

"Yes, sir," he responded immediately.

"You're sure they aren't just going to be walked all over?" asked Victor, with obvious contempt.

"Yes, sir," Dominic said again.

"Everything evenly spaced out?" asked Brooks.

"Yes, sir," said Dominic yet again.

The questions seemed to stop after that, to his satisfaction. Felix nodded to him. "Where are they posted?" he asked.

Dominic assumed he meant the squads and said, "Omega is defending the front hill. Beta is sniping from the right path. They said it had a good view of the entire valley. Gamma is defending the left hill. Alpha is split between covering Beta and assisting Gamma. And Delta is in reserves."

Victor's head snapped to looked towards him. "What?! You put my men as reserves?! What the hell?!" he shoved Dominic out of the way and stomped off toward Delta. "Delta! On your feet! Just 'cause an idiot tells you to sit doesn't mean you have to! Show some judgment!"

They all watched then as Victor dragged his soldiers to their feet and split them up between Omega and Gamma. Dominic turned bright red beneath his helmet. He nodded to himself and accepted that it was a dumb mistake. One that could've been avoided.

Brooks shook is head. "That fellow's a loose cannon."

K.C. stood next to him. "If the brutes have their way…it won't matter."


	9. Chapter 9

Dominic instinctively ducked as he heard the sound of an explosion. But as no marines ran about panicked, he suspected the explosion had come from down the hill and amongst the brutes.

They'd started their next charge. It had only just begun though.

A few minutes earlier the phantoms had dropped off their cargo and flew off to retrieve more. Dominic hoped they had at least an hour to fight off the charges and get away before the next reinforcements arrived.

Next to him, Felix looked around at the defenses and shouted over the roar of the battle, "Good defenses, Dom!"

"Thank you, sir!" he shouted back. "What now?"

"For you?" asked Felix, receiving a nod in reply. "Go with Gamma and that part of Alpha. I'll join you soon."

"Yes, sir," he said back before jogging off toward his post. Then, from nowhere, a plasma grenade sailed through the air and landed close to his running feet. Not knowing what else to do, he simply through himself to the ground and covered his head. The ground shook violently and he felt an extreme heat as the grenade detonated loudly. He shook his head then and started his run again.

The noise around him was deafening. He heard the distinctive rumble of turrets and, to his discouragement, choppers and prowlers. As he neared his post, he could see the outnumbered marines desperately fighting off the massive monsters storming up the hill. An orange stick grenade sailed through the air with a hiss and stuck itself to the ground behind a marine.

Instinct took over as Dominic dove toward the device, yanked it from the ground, and hurled it back toward the brutes. It exploded in midair, showering the monster with the molten hot projectiles.

Dominic looked at the men and spotted Rico and Mike. They were behind a large boulder to the right, alternating between firing and reloading. It seemed very affective. He planted himself next to them a moment later, who both nodded in greeting.

The fight was intense. The brutes were a tidal wave of flesh and bone marching against a defensive enemy. The hillside was completely stained in their blood as they continuously took heavy losses.

A grenade mangled two toward the front. Two battle rifles ripped holes through one's eyes sockets and through the back of its head. Another took a mouthful of lead at point blank.

Dominic smiled slightly. They may be able to hold out. Then he heard them roar in approval and part to the sides. To the horror of the marines, two prowlers appeared at the base of the hill, rocketing toward the humans.

Immediately, the whole group opened fire on the vehicles. One lucky shot killed the gunner on the first but the gunner on the second was still alive. Dominic focused his fire on him as he neared. With gritted teeth he fired repeatedly at the monster and succeeded in accidently taking out some brutes behind him, but that gunner needed to die. A brute from behind the prowlers threw a spike grenade that stuck itself to the ground not far from Dominic, Mike, and Rico. It detonated quickly, but no one took much notice with the prowlers the focus of their attention.

Rico next to him grunted and dropped down behind the boulder with a grunt. Mike glanced down at him and yelled, "Keep firing! I'm gonna check Rico!"

"Okay!" Dominic shouted back without really listening. He was completely focused on the brute gunner.

A marine to his left stood quickly and hurled a grenade toward the vehicle. Dominic held his breath as it bounced once and sailed toward the prowler…

With a ground shaking explosion, the grenade detonated and through the prowler against a rock, knocking the gunner off balance just long enough for someone to pump several rounds through his head. He slumped against his seat, lifeless.

The passenger on the left, the one who'd been thrown against the rock by the explosion, fell out of his seat and lay completely still on the ground. The other passenger had been mangled by the explosion, since it was on his side of the vehicle. The only survivor was the driver.

Two more grenades then sailed through the air and flipped the vehicle over with a thunderous boom. Dominic ducked as the brutes roared in fury. He reloaded and glanced at the other prowler still working its way up the hill. Even without a gunner, it still posed a very real threat.

One of the passengers primed a stick grenade and waved it over his head with a roar. Dominic growled and shot the beast's hand with a roar of his own. A fountain of blood erupted from the creature's wrist as he dropped the sharp device onto his own leg. The spikes embedded themselves deep into the tissue just before exploding.

Dominic didn't look twice at the rest of the brute but looked at the prowler.

It was now only meters away from the first few marines. Still, even with only one passenger, the spikes along the front of the sleds could rip a man in half. It had to be stopped before it reached the men… but it was already there.

"Fall back!" he screamed to the men near it. They were already getting up, they knew the danger. The driver floored it toward a marine sprinting toward a boulder for cover, but a missed grenade slowed it down just enough for the marine to escape.

Most of the marines were moving up the hill and away from the prowler. But this was what the brutes had planned when they'd sent the prowler up after the humans. The marines would be forced back and away from the threat, and every inch they gave up would be claimed by the brutes and they might never get it back.

Dominic threw a grenade at the vehicle in an attempt to stop it in its tracks. But it detonated behind the vehicle and did little damage. Another marine picked up a plasma grenade and hurled it at the vehicle, sticking the passenger on the right.

The brute, in a panic, jumped from the vehicle and ran back in the opposite direction before exploding. Had the brute stayed on, the grenade would've destroyed the whole thing. In complete frustration, Dominic tossed his last grenade in front of the vehicle… and prayed.

The ground shook as the detonation lifted the whole back half of the vehicle into the air until the prowler was balanced on its nose. The marines opened up on the engine and on the driver himself.

The product was an explosion that shook the hillside and showered the men in shrapnel.

Dominic thanked God as the marines started reclaiming their lost ground. For the first time, he looked at Rico, whose face was twisted in agony. Mike's face was filled with fear and concern as he looked at Dominic. "He's gotta spike stuck in his side. From that grenade."

The memory flashed in Dominic's mind and he looked at the five inch spike buried at least two inches in Rico's left side, right above his belt. It was bleeding profusely and Dominic could see the burn mark from its entry. He winced at the thought of that slicing through him.

He wrapped one of Rico's arms around his neck and got on one knee, ready to run. "Let's get him out of here."

The brutes behind roared as started another furious charge toward the humans. Dominic and Mike paid them no mind as they helped the injured Rico to his feet and to the top of the hill. The men watching the front slope seemed to be doing well. They were communicating with each other, sharing ammo, and successfully keeping the giant monsters at bay. Dominic half wished he could switch places.

"Here I got him," said Mike, taking Rico fully from Dominic. He lowered him to the ground next to a boulder and ripped away a portion of his uniform to reveal the wound. The around the spike was black and charred. Blood covered his whole side and had soaked his uniform. Mike shook his head. "He'd lost a lot of blood. I need biofoam…" he looked at the crashed pelican behind them and pointed. "Go look in there for some! I'll remove the spike."

Dominic immediately jumped to his feet and ran over to the drop ship and started sifting through the debris for a medical kit. Meanwhile, his head was filled with fearful thoughts. Rico was losing a lot of blood very fast. Normally, men with injuries of that severity would be evacuated at the nearest rally point. But they were basically stranded there until the Sangheili could arrive. Biofoam wouldn't fix the whole problem either. It was extremely painful to administer and would only stop the bleeding for an hour or two before it would break down and then Rico might bleed to death anyways…

He shook his head and continued looking for the kit, finally finding in compartment above the seats in the back. Gripping with a sigh, he bolted from the vehicle and back toward his friends.

Mike had just removed the spike which was excruciating enough to make Rico scream. Mike held out his hand for the biofoam, "Hurry! Before he calms down! Let's get the pain over with," he said as he received it. Without waiting a second more, he injected the foam into his friend, who let out a bloodcurdling scream.

Dominic restrained him as the biofoam took effect and stopped the bleeding. After a moment, Rico finally passed out and lay limp against the boulder. His two friends sighed for a moment and looked at each other.

"Come on, men! We gotta go! Now!" screamed someone. The two exhausted marines turned and looked back at Tex who was moving his men away from the cliff edge and to their feet. "They're weakened; we gotta get outta here before they get reinforcements! Let's move!"


	10. Chapter 10

Dominic quickly grabbed Rico and wrapped one of his arms around his neck as Mike did the same. When they started to run, Mike yelled, "I got him, you go ahead!"

Dominic nodded before running down the left hill with the rest of the marines. This time, is the brutes' turn to be surprised. They stopped their charges as they watched the roaring humans running toward them. Twice as many guns as before fired into them, cutting them down like trees.

Dominic ran with the rest of the men and jumped over the mass of bodies, stumbling as he landed on the other side. As they ran out from behind the large boulders separating the left hill from the rest, he got a look at the battleground.

It seemed as through hundreds of bodies littered the ground. Several burning vehicles illuminated the ground enough to show how the blood had turned it into a swamp. Dominic shook his head at the carnage as he and others ran past it.

Their leaders were among them, shouting things like, "Faster!" "Move, move, move!" "To the trees!" or "Come on, men! Don't look back!"

It worked though, the men were moving faster. Dominic panted as they ran into the trees, where they'd originally been at the beginning of the battle. The dark trees hid them well from any survivors left out on the battleground. As the ODSTs left the hill, it was well after dark.

As they ran with the few wounded, each silently prayed that a brute patrol wouldn't catch them. Overhead, phantoms were flying in with reinforcements. Behind him, Dominic heard Felix yell, "Move, faster! They'll send in a patrol!"

A private somewhere yelled in fear as the words escaped from Felix. The men seemed to move twice as fast after hearing that.

Behind them, they heard a crash. Victor, who was toward the front ordered them to stop and drop down.

"What are you doing?! They'll find us and kill us!" yelled the terrified private.

Victor waved fiercely to shut him up, and then they listened…

They heard the distance engines of three, no four, choppers running through the forest. Every now and then, they heard the crash of a tree falling as the chopper mowed it down. The ground started to tremble with their power and destruction as they neared the ODSTs.

As the ground continued to shake, Victor jumped to his feet and yelled, "Run! Follow me!"

Dominic growled as he chased the man. They shouldn't have stopped, now the choppers were closer than before. But no matter, the choppers moved faster anyways. On his HUD, their hideout showed to be at least two miles away from where they currently were. He guessed that they'd already run one at least.

He coughed in exhausted, but kept running. Felix ran ahead and took the lead of the group with Victor. He spotted Rico and Mike toward the back with Tanner continually checking behind them for brutes. Dominic was glad to see them all together.

The pack of Special Forces soldiers ran through the foliage for a while before finally reaching their base. Delta squad covered everyone as they ran into the cave behind the waterfall.

Rico and Mike collapsed as soon as they entered the cave, exhausted from the hard run. Dominic sat next to them in silence as they coughed profusely. Rico was coughing up small amounts of blood though, which could mean he was more injured than they thought.

But, for the moment, they were safe again.


	11. Chapter 11

After the terrifying sprint through the forest, the men decided to rest.

Victor and Felix set up a few sentries while the majority of the troops slept in the cave, lulled to sleep by the constant roar of the waterfall.

Dominic and Mike took turns watching Rico and administering him new biofoam every hour on the hour. At the moment, the wounded marine was sleeping peacefully while Dominic made himself comfortable not far away. He removed all his armor and rested nearby to get more comfortable. A mossy rock seemed good enough, and he leaned against it, cleaning his filthy battle rifle.

_You've had a tough day haven't you, girl, _he silently said to the weapon.

They'd all had a tough day. The decision to activate the beacons could've compromised the whole mission and put the whole universe at risk. But, thankfully, they'd successfully recovered Omega squad and were safely hidden in their hideout.

Honestly, they wouldn't be truly "safe" until they were back aboard a frigate headed home. But the cave offered them a safe haven.

After a night of rest, dawn broke. Dominic tried to remember if it was the second or third. It didn't matter. They might be there a hundred before they finished the mission… or were killed.

He needed to stop thinking about it. Thankfully at that moment, Mike walked up. "Hey, man," said the tired marine.

"Hey," replied Dominic. "Want to switch?"

Mike had been a sentry for a better part of the night, and the dark circles under the man's eyes were evidence enough of his exhaustion. He sighed and scratched the back of his neck. "Um, yeah. You mind?"

Dominic was already getting to his feet. "No, it's no problem. Sleeping beauty here is gonna need a new injection in a few minutes here. He'll let you know when."

Rico would always awake in a large amount of pain when the biofoam began to break down. The few minutes he was awake for were painful and exhausting. Dominic didn't blame the man for sleeping the whole day.

Mike nodded and looked at his best friend. As Dominic turned to go to the mouth of the cave, the other marine asked, "How much biofoam do we have left?"

Dominic slowly turned. "Maybe enough for a few more days." He motioned around the cave as he said, "I don't know if anyone else here has some but Rico's not the only wounded one here." He looked back at Mike. "We need to find some more. Soon."

Mike nodded silently and smiled sadly. "Well, we'll keep an eye out for some… you better go."

The other marine nodded and walked to the mouth of the cave, where two other marines were already sitting. They sat perched atop two boulders getting misted by the waterfalls' downpour. Dominic greeted them. "Hello, boys."

The two others turned and nodded to him. One looked at him curiously. "No armor?"

Dominic had almost completely forgotten he'd left it there. Instead, he sat down in only his filthy shirt and pants. He shrugged. "Yeah. Besides I doubt any of them know we're here so I don't think we need to worry about snipers."

The man nodded and looked out at the forest in silence.

* * *

Hours dragged by. By noon, the humidity was almost too much for Dominic to bear, and he simply removed his shirt. The water from the waterfall felt good on his bear skin, and he was filthy enough to justify twelve showers.

Other marines had rotated through for the other two after a few hours, and Dominic considered doing likewise. Really, he wanted to find Felix and see what they were planning as far as the whole mission was concerned. So far, all they'd done was group together in a cave, get in a huge battle, and then sit for hours licking their wounds. It was a miracle they weren't all dead, but they needed to get moving now.

After a few more hours of thinking, Dominic got to his feet and headed back inside the cave. He shivered as he entered. The cave was colder since the waterfall acted as an air conditioning system, filling the cave with its cool air. He put his filthy shirt back on as he sought out his captain.

Finally, he found the man leaning over a flat rock serving the leaders as a table as they looked over a map. The map was basically useless. It had very little detail since humanity knew very little about Doisac. Still, it was all they had.

Dominic waited patiently for a good moment before clearing his throat. Felix looked at him quickly and then at the rest of the leaders. "Fellows, you'll have to excuse me."

He followed Dominic a ways before stopping him. "How's Rico? And don't bullshit me. Tell me the truth."

Dominic had hoped he would be the one asking the questions. He sighed and said quietly, "He's not doing well. He's surviving only because of the biofoam. And pretty soon we're going to run out or he's going bleed out even with it. He loses a little more blood each time we have to change it."

"Think he'll make it?"

"I have no idea," he replied honestly. "But, if he's going to last even a week, we need to find more biofoam. Without he'll die within minutes."

Felix digested this with a nod. He glanced back at the rock table and then back at his XO. "I'm guessing you didn't come over just to tell me that Rico's dying." Dominic shook his head. "Then what's up?"

Dominic shifted his weight from one foot to the other nervously. "Sir… Felix, I was wondering what we're doing as far as the overall mission goes."

Felix seemed angry then. He growled and sighed as his shoulders sagged. "Dom, we can't do anything right now. The brutes will be out there on high alert for a while because of that battle. And we have wounded that need tending to. Just right now, we're getting ready to move."

"What are we going to do once we're done preparing? Are we going to send out scouts or… what?"

Felix nodded. "Probably. We'll send out groups of maybe two or three, groups small enough to get around undetected, to go look around for their major cities."

"What if their major cities are on the other side of the planet?"

"They aren't."

"How do you know?"

Felix growled again. "We know because of the intelligence gather by our superiors, Dom. All major cities are within a hundred miles of where they dropped us. Got it?"

Dominic simply nodded.

Felix sighed and wiped a sweaty hand across his face. "I know you're concerned about Rico. But… there are more important things happening here. I love Rico, he's a great man. But we knew there'd be losses, and there already have been hundreds of losses, but we need to press on. Okay?"

Dominic nodded again.

"Just trust us. We want to get off this rock just as much as you guys. But you gotta trust our approach."

With that, Felix turned and walked over to the rest of the leaders. Dominic had to count to ten several times before he calmed down. He walked back to the entrance of the cave and stood near the waterfall, letting it soak him as he thought.

Felix was an outstanding officer. Much better than that idiot Victor. But sometimes…

He left that thought unfinished. Blaming Felix and getting mad at him wouldn't make the mission go any faster. As he thought, he realized he wished he was a captain. He wished the others would listen to him. He wished he could prove he was better than Victor.

His time would come. In the meantime, he had to trust Felix and the others. They had more experience and they knew what they were doing. He just had to be patient.

That was all he really could do.


	12. Chapter 12

After two days of rest, the leaders finally decided it was time to get on with the mission. Dominic wasn't surprised when they called a meeting on the third day. The heat that day was almost too much to bear, even in the cave, and most of the men had removed their armor. Rico was surviving, but he wouldn't hold out much longer.

The five leaders waved them over to one end of the cave, and the Gamma leader, Red Brooks, started off. "Men, we've wasted time enough. We have to start moving on with the mission. We have a time limit, too. Many of us have small wounds here or there, but there are some of us with more serious injuries. They don't have long. Keep an eye out for biofoam or more food. Felix, you wanna take it from here?"

Dominic watched his captain stand up. "Sure, Red." He held his hands behind his back and sighed. "The five of us, have decided it would be best if we had one, overall leader. As such, the group has nominated myself as first in command, and Victor will take second in command."

Murmurs rippled through the group of soldiers as Victor waved to them in silence. Dominic could see that the big man was angry though. The power hungry fool would get them killed if he were in charge. Dominic trusted Felix with his life and would follow him anywhere.

The briefing continued on as K.C. and Red held up the map of the forest. It had several markings on it that they'd made in there planning.

Felix pointed to two points. "This one here," he said pointing to one towards the center. "is Omega's pelican. We want to send a small group there to look around for any more supplies. This one," he pointed further to the right at the other point. "is Beta's crashed pelican. We're going to send another group there too. And this," further to the left this time at a third point. "is Alpha's pelican. Omega will take their pelican, Beta will take their pelican, and Alpha will take theirs. Victor?"

The second in command grudgingly got to his feet. "The rest of us are going to scout around for any brute outposts or cities. We want to get familiar with our immediate surroundings. Delta, we'll scout out to the southeast and Gamma, you'll take the south. The pelicans are placed so that Alpha, Beta, and Omega will take west, north, and east. We want to spread out, so we're going to give each other a lot of room. Felix?"

Felix took the stand again. "As you know, we're here to destroy the major brute cities. But, we're also here to find valuable resources here on the planet. Be on lookout for strange materials—"

"What if we find some?" asked someone.

"Then take a small amount and bring it back here. When this planet can be declared safe again they'll send down researchers to find out about these resources. Mark down where you found it too so we can tell them when they do finally come. Any questions as far as that goes?" he asked.

No hands were raised.

Felix nodded and continued, "You all know where you're supposed to go. Stick together and always have someone else with you. If you do run into brutes, you need to be able to defend yourselves." He paused for effect and then nodded to himself as he remembered another thing. "We're also going to be sure to leave sentries here to protect the cave. If you have any questions about where you go or who does what, ask your squad leaders. Understood?"

"Sir, yes, sir!" shouted back the group.

"Then let's get to it!"

"Hoo-ah!"

Then, everyone spread to their own duties. Felix clapped Dominic on the shoulder and smiled. "How was it?"

Dominic chuckled. "Not a bad first."

The two soldiers then walked over to Rico. The rest of the squad was there, too. Tanner was getting his armor on and hefting his weapon as Mike was giving Rico new biofoam. As Felix walked up, Mike quickly finished and stood to face him. "Sir, I need to stay here and take care of Rico."

Felix shook his head. "No. Dom and Tanner can't go alone. They need one more person and everyone else has a job to do. The medics and sentries can take care of him."

"No. I don't trust anyone else, sir."

Felix looked at his friend sadly and after a few seconds nodded. "Okay. Stay here. I'll go. Alright?"

Mike nodded and then turned back to his friend on the ground, who'd just passed out again. Dominic knew it must be hard for him. But, he had to prepare for the worst. Felix waited while Dominic got his armor back on. The heat was almost too much to bear, as he put his shirt on before it. He promised himself he'd rip the sleeves off before he fought in the confounded thing again.

A few minutes later, the three of them were trudging through the forest, headed for their fallen pelican.


	13. Chapter 13

Dominic swung an arm at a large flying bug hovering hear his head. The creature dodged it, and flew around to the other side of his head to be a nuisance. He swiped a hand towards it, missing again. The bug flew behind him now, and he spun around to try and find it.

"Dom! Ignore it!" said Felix.

Dominic stopped looking for it and started walking again. "Sorry, sir, they're just so irritating!"

"Yeah? Well so is a soldier that won't focus on his mission."

Dominic bit his lip, but he knew his leader was right. He stopped swatting at the little creatures and walked on, fully alert.

They'd been walking for over a half an hour now, searching for their crashed pelican. Silence stretched between the three men for a while, before Felix asked, "How's Rico doin'? Any better?"

Dominic sighed. "No, sir, not really."

The silence stretched on again. Then, a while later, Tanner pointed up above the trees. "Sir, smoke. Is that from our pelican?"

The other two looked up and sure enough there was a thin screen of smoke drifting up to the clouds. Felix shrugged as he walked on. "I don't know. But, it's something for sure. Let's check it out."

The source of the smoke wasn't far, that much was certain. The three ODSTs dropped to a crouch and slowly pushed through the foliage towards the source of the smoke. After a couple hundred feet, they could make out the shape of their crashed pelican.

"I can't believe it's still smoking. It's been days since we crashed," said Tanner.

"Well, some of that fuel can burn for a while," said Felix.

The three men stopped short as they heard a brute roar. When two brutes walked out from behind the pelican, they went prone. Dominic hugged the ground and listened to his own heartbeat as the brutes neared. He glanced up, and saw a heavily armored brute captain walking around from the other side of the drop ship. They stopped near the front of the pelican and started talking.

"No survivors here," said one.

"Good," rumbled the voice of the captain. "What about those other pelicans scattered around?"

"Patrols have been sent out to them, too. We don't want another battle like the one at the hill over there."

"Extra men are going to that one, yes?"

"Yes, sir. With choppers and prowlers, too. They'll also clean up our dead while they're there."

The captain nodded and looked at the pelican behind him. "I don't want them coming back for supplies. Destroy this ship and everything in it."

The other two watched their leader stalk off back where he'd come from. Seconds later they heard the roar of a chopper engine as road off, leaving the two monsters to their job.

"Come, brother, let's do this and then we can go home," said one to the other.

The other nodded and the two walked to the back of the pelican. Before they were completely out of sight, Felix's voice came through his helmet's speakers.

"Okay, we can't let them destroy this ship. Tanner, go around the right, Dominic and I will go left."

"Yes, sir," the other two marines said.

Dominic then followed Felix as he jogged over to the left of the pelican. Felix held up a fist and looked around the corner. He then held up two fingers and his voice said, "Only two brutes, Tanner. Wait for my mark." Tanner's acknowledgement light flashed once. Felix waited a few more seconds, and then said, "Mark."

The three men then burst from their hiding places and caught the two unsuspecting brutes in a crossfire. The monsters were able to put up a fight for only a few seconds before they were cut down. Only ten seconds had passed since Felix gave the signal to attack.

Tanner kicked one of the monster's dead bodies. "Bastards," he muttered.

"We'll get 'em. Don't you worry, Tanner," said Felix. "Let's look for supplies."

The men then spent the next twenty minutes thoroughly searching the pelican for biofoam and food. Dominic stomach growled and he started to worry about it. _I wonder what the brutes eat,_ he thought to himself. Probably each other. It wasn't a stretch to imagine. In the end, the men found several medical kits loaded with biofoam. Enough to keep Rico alive for at least another week. They also found several packages of food. Dominic stacked it all as he heard Felix mutter, "Well looky here…"

The captain was crouched in front of a strange looking blue device, examining it and running his hands over it. "What is it?" he asked his captain.

Felix glanced back. "It's a brute bomb. Pretty heavy duty, too."

"How 'heavy duty'?" asked Tanner, walking up.

"Heavy duty enough to leave a crater here at least a hundred feet in diameter and completely incinerate this ship."

Dominic whistled. "Pretty heavy duty for just a pelican isn't it?"

"Well, maybe they just want to be efficient." Felix stood and switched to another frequency to communicate with Victor and Red back at the base. "Delta One? This is Alpha One. Over."

"Alpha One, this is Delta One. What is your status? Over," replied Victor.

"Alpha drop ship successfully located and searched. Found food and medical supplies. Over."

"Excellent. Return to base with new supplies. Over."

"Negative, Delta One. Brutes got here before we did. They tried to blow this thing but we stopped them. Have large brute bomb here, too. Over."

Victor paused as he thought. "Alpha One, is bomb too large to carry by yourselves? Over."

"With the supplies? Yes. Over."

Dominic heard a groan from Felix's second in command. "Alpha One, we will send two sentries to help you bring back the supplies. And then—" he stopped short. The three marines heard chattering behind him from Red. "Negative, Alpha One! Repeat: Negative! Omega has just made contact with multiple brutes and brute vehicles. Requesting assistance! Over."

Dominic shook his head. The man was having a mental breakdown over the radio frequency. Pathetic. Felix was still calm and said, "We figured, Delta One. We overheard the brutes talking about something like that. Alpha squad will assist. Send sentries to recover supplies and bomb ASAP. We'll leave a beacon here so you can find it. Alpha One, over and out."

"Roger that, Alpha One. Delta One, over and out," finished Victor.

Felix nodded once and looked at Dominic and Tanner. "Well, you heard the lady, boys," he said. Dominic chuckled knowing he was referring to Victor. It was a perfect fit for him. "sounds like Omega's in trouble again. Let's go."


	14. Chapter 14

_Here we go again,_ thought Dominic. The three of them were now running through the forest, homing in on the beacons of Omega squad. Felix slowed down a little as he keyed his mike. "Omega One, this is Alpha One. What is your position? Over."

Dominic first heard the sounds of shouted orders and gunfire as Tex responded. "Alpha One, there's a shit-load of brutes here! We're about a quarter mile away from the pelican. We have supplies with us, but we couldn't lead them back to the cave. Sending you our coordinates now, Alpha One. This is Omega One, over and—Shit! Fall back!" The last words were shouted to his men. They needed help. Fast.

Dominic gulped slightly as he kept running. Sounded like an intense fight. On his HUD as a NAV point, and it only took one guess to figure out where it led to. The marker showed them to be only a quarter mile away. Felix shouted, "Come on, men! They don't have much time!"

They then sprinted through the trees, willed on by the knowledge of their desperation. After a while, Felix held up a hand to halt them. Dominic heard gunfire, and the NAV point showed them to be only a few hundred meters ahead. Felix's voice came through again. "Move up. Slowly."

Dominic nodded to himself and crouched down as he walked. Then, ahead of him, the fight presented itself. On his left, Tex's group was in a rocky outcropping fighting of the brutes as they hid behind trees to his right. About twenty or so brutes were popping out from behind trees to fire at them. He smiled slightly as one brute took a round to the neck. The monster crumpled to the ground, lifeless. Even so, it was a one-sided fight.

Felix said, "Okay, Tanner and Dom, go around behind them on the far side. I'll stay here. We're gonna confuse these guys and run 'em off."

Dominic nodded, and followed Tanner to the other side of the battle. The plan was simple, but effective. The brutes were focused on Omega squad, if suddenly they were fired upon by multiple, unseen enemies, it would cause confusion and panic. Either they'd be cut down quickly, or they'd be forced to retreat. Sure victory.

Dominic and Tanner then crouched down once they were in position, and waited for Felix to give the order. After a few seconds, he said clearly and firmly, "Mark."

Three weapons hidden in the trees around the brutes opened fire on the monsters. At first, they didn't notice the new projectiles pelting them from a new angle. Two brutes dropped down from the new fire. One brute turned and looked at the bodies as the weapons came to life again, pelting him in the back with lead. He turned and faced them just as he met his doom. Other brutes were taking notice of the hidden enemies now, but were having a hard time finding actual bodies to shoot at.

Dominic dropped to the ground and lay prone as brute finally spotted them and fired is spiker into the foliage. Tanner did likewise, and rolled further to the right to confuse the brutes even more. Dominic rolled further left, and started looking for another target.

The brute that had spotted them was still firing his spiker at where he had been, and was exposing his underarm and the left side of his chest beneath his armor. Dominic focused on the spot, and pulled the trigger twice. A fountain of blood appeared on the monster's side as he dropped his weapon and clutched at the wound. Dominic finished him with a shot to the neck. As he started to aim at another, a sniper round split the beast's head like a watermelon. Dominic looked away as the creature toppled over a second later.

The brutes were in complete disarray now. They looked all around them and fired in random places, trying to kill their unseen attackers. Omega squad was dropping them all quickly now, and the captain shouted loudly, "Fall back! Back into the—" a sniper round through his mouth cut him off.

Only four brutes remained to run into the trees for cover. Omega was saved. The marines met in the center of the killing ground. Tex grinned as he strapped his sniper rifle to his back. "Good job, Alpha. That was mighty fine quick thinking there!"

Felix nodded. "Thanks, Tex. You guys get your supplies?"

The men held up packages of food and medical kits. "Got it. Was tough though. Brutes were swarming all over it and followed us. We couldn't let them find the cave so we had to fight 'em off. Didn't know if we'd make it…"

Felix clapped him on the shoulder. "Well, you did."

The other man looked as though he was about to say something, but stopped as their radios chattered again. "Alpha and Omega One, this is Delta One, what is your status? Over."

Felix spoke for them. "Delta One, this is Alpha One, Omega squad is secured with supplies in hand. Ready to head back. Over."

"Negative, Alpha One. Beta One, has just called in. They said they've successfully found and searched their pelican with no complications. Brutes never found their ship. They say they've got something you need to see, Alpha One. Over."

Felix glanced at the men around him as he listened. "Well, what is it? Over."

"They said they don't know what it is, Alpha One. Over."

Felix growled. "Very well. Alpha will assist and Omega will head back with their supplies. Did you guys pick up our supplies and the bomb? Over."

"Affirmative. Sentries just returned with the packages, Alpha One. Over."

"Good. Alpha will head to Beta's position. Over and out."

Felix sighed and his hand flew to the back of his neck in attempt to scratch his uniformed neck. He simply rubbed the back of the uniform roughly and looked up after a few seconds. "Tex, take your men back to the cave. I and my squad are going to go assist Beta."

Tex nodded. He already knew this since the frequency they were using was shared by all the leaders. "Roger that, Felix. See you back at the cave."

The nine ODSTs then turned and ran back through the jungle toward their base, leaving the rest of the group alone to go find Beta squad. The captain then keyed his mike and said, "Beta One, this is Alpha One. Please respond. Over."

"This is Beta One. Over," replied a voice.

"I understand you requested my presence at your position? Over."

"Yes. Over."

"Please send us your position, Beta One. We'll be there soon. This is Alpha One, over and out." Felix turned to face them as he sighed. "Come on. Let's go."

Dominic understood how his leader felt. It was supposed to be a simple assignment that had turned into rescues and investigations. Oh well. They didn't have much choice.

* * *

A while later, they followed the NAV point several miles to a crashed pelican in a ravine. _No wonder the brutes didn't find it,_ Dominic thought to himself. The pelican would almost be invisible unless someone were to stand on the edge of the ravine and look right at it. From a distance, it didn't seem to exist.

Felix, Dominic, and Tanner descended down the rocky ravine to the pelican and looked in the back of the pelican. There were two of Beta squad. Behind them, they heard the foliage rustling as Beta One, K.C., stepped out.

"Ah. Alpha squad. Good to see ya," he said casually as he rested his battle rifle on his shoulder.

"You too," lied Felix. "So where is it? Where's this mysterious thing I need to see so bad?"

K.C. frowned with his curtness and motioned back the way he'd come. "This way, sir." Felix and the other two followed silently. K.C. led them through a small rocky cave. We were checking the perimeter, sir." He continued walking several hundred meters until coming to a sort of cliff. "Then, we found this…" he trailed off as he pointed with his weapon down into another ravine.

This one was steeper, cut out by the brutes to make something of a mine. It went straight back for a hundred meters before turning a corner to the left. In the mine, some of the brutes were in chains and wearing very little, no armor whatsoever. They were also being guarded by several brutes with carbines or spikers. Dominic shook his head. "Slaves? I thought the brutes were on the same side."

"They're united against us. But that doesn't mean they aren't divided amongst each other. They can still have slaves," said Felix.

"Maybe they're criminals. Or deserters from the war," guessed Tanner.

"Whoever they are, their life ain't so hot now," said K.C. "Looks like they're mining some of the resources we're looking for, too. Maybe they need them just as much as we do."

Felix nodded. The group watched the slaves work on, under guard by the armored brutes. One, a chieftain with a gravity hammer came out from around the corner. He walked what he saw as the center of the mine and bellowed, "Alright, you scum! Time for food!"

The group continued to watch as the armored brutes led the chained ones away, around the corner to some unknown gathering area where they'd be fed. Felix remembered the mission. "Guys, we need to find a sample of some of that material."

"What are you nuts?! We just drop down in there!" protested K.C.

"We have to do something!" said Tanner, supporting his captain.

They watched as several of the armored brutes returned and spread around the mine to guard it. They seemed alert, much to the chagrin of the marines watching them.

K.C. nodded. "Look. We can't sneak past them. At least not now. Let's go back to the cave and drop off the supplies. Then, after dark we can come back and find some samples. Okay?"

Felix watched the guards a moment longer before nodding. He looked up at the younger man. "Alright. After dark, we'll come back." He looked into the mine again. "I wonder if those slaves would help us. I bet they hate the rest of the brutes."

K.C. started to lead them back toward the pelican. Tanner looked at the mine one last time. "Yeah, or they'll do anything to get their old position back. It's a bad idea, sir. No offense, but we should just not try to talk to them."

Dominic nodded silently as they reached the pelican and started heading back. But inside, he truly wondered if maybe the brutes would help them. They could use all the help they could get…


	15. Chapter 15

"A mine?" asked Victor as the group told him their story.

"Yeah, with slaves and everything," said Dominic quickly.

The other man glared at him. "I didn't ask you, _corporal_," he spat the last word. "I'm talking to Felix."

"He was there, too, Victor," said Felix. "He's just as much right to tell you as I do."

The other man scowled but asked, "Slaves?"

"Yes. They've got no armor and they're chained together. Other brutes are guarding them," explained Felix.

Victor crossed his arms, but reached up with one to stroke his chin. "Hmm. Have we looked into their area before?" he asked.

"No. Beta didn't even know it was there until they checked it today. Besides that no one knew and we haven't scouted that area before either."

Delta One looked at the ground. "You think there might be a city there?" he asked quietly.

Felix shrugged, but was slightly surprised. "I don't know. I'd figure they'd keep criminals and mines far from civilizations."

"But we're moving closer. A permanent brute position…we're getting closer to them." He started pacing as Felix and Dominic thought out what he was saying. "Did you get a sample of what they were digging up?" he asked them.

"No. We wanted to but it was too well guarded. We're going to go back later tonight."

The pacing man shook a finger at the air in thought. "If we haven't checked that area before, and there's a permanent brute mine…" he stopped and faced them. "Listen, I think we could be close to one of their cities. Maybe not their capitol or a large city, but it is a city nonetheless. Tonight, we need to get samples of the materials, and go scout ahead to see if we can find the city."

Felix blinked several times. "We?"

Victor straightened up. "You didn't think you'd be going alone did you?"

Dominic glanced at his leader, who glanced back but said nothing to him. "Well, I was going to take Alpha squad."

"Pfft!" said Victor, waving off the idea. "Alpha squad is good, but they're one of the smallest groups, especially with… what's-his-face being injured—"

"Rico," interrupted Dominic with a glare.

"What?"

"His name is Rico," said Dominic, glaring at Victor.

The other man shook his head. "As I was saying, Alpha is one of the smallest groups. Delta, is one of the largest. We'll take care of it. But, we'll need a guide," he smiled. "You lead us there. And the two of us can scout it out. Maybe break the ice a little bit as officers."

Felix smiled, but Dominic could tell he was pissed. "Thanks, Victor. But I think we can handle it ourselves," he said as began to turn away.

"It's not a suggestion, Felix," said Victor. Felix stopped to face the angered face of the Delta captain. "Delta will scout. You be the guide there," he said.

Felix squared off with the man and said firmly, "First of all, let's get one thing straight. You're my second in command in this mission. You don't give me orders, soldier. Second, me _and_ my XO," he patted Dominic on the back. "are going with you. We're gonna stick with you guys through the whole endeavor."

Victor snarled and spun around to stomp off toward Red Brooks and Tex, who were studying a map behind them. Felix shook his head, and led him and Dominic away.

"That guy's a loose cannon," he muttered as they walked toward Rico and Mike.

Dominic glanced back and around them. "What do you think he's up to? Why's he trying to keep the rest us from going, too?"

Felix shook his head. "I don't know. But I definitely don't trust him. That's why I'm bringing you with us."

Dominic nodded. "Shouldn't we just bring all of Alpha?"

"No. Victor's an idiot, but he got one thing right: we're one of the smallest groups." He stopped and looked Dominic in the eye. "Not the weakest though." He sighed. "But, we need most of our squad to take care of Rico and help out around here. Just you and I will go."

"Yes, sir." He looked at the other three men in his group. "Should we tell them? About Victor and how… strange he's acting?"

His captain slowed down, trying to buy time so he could say what he wanted to say. "No. They have enough to worry about with Rico. We don't need to worry them with the chance of a rogue officer."

Dominic's jaw dropped as his leader sped up, leaving him to digest what he'd said. Was Victor really going rogue? Maybe he was power hungry. Whatever it was, they needed to watch him closely.

He was too dangerous to be trusted.


	16. Chapter 16

**..::READ THIS::..**

**Hey, guy! I'm so sorry for the long wait! My computer has been being really dumb recently. Okay i've got some news for you. I've been working on a new huge story for a long while now and it's almost ready to be uploaded. But, it's better than all my past stories and i'm thinking of deleting them and starting over. So, if you guys like this story the way it is, i'm gonna need a total of 6 reviews before July 15. That gives you guys ten days to get five reviews and save this story. So, keep reading and review!!!**

* * *

Nightfall fell over the strange planet.

Felix and Dominic looked at each other as they walked through the forest toward the Beta pelican, and the mine. Delta squad was right behind them, and Victor could almost be heard breathing down the back of Dominic's neck. He shivered a little, nervous.

After an hour of walking and trying to keep as quiet as possible, the procession made it to the pelican. Victor looked at the crashed ship and frowned. "Where is this mine, Felix? You said it was close."

Felix turned and glared. "Victor, it's right through there," he said, pointing at the rocky tunnel they'd passed through. Without waiting for a response, he ducked into it and walked through quickly. On the other side, he led them to the edge of the brute-made ravine.

Some of Delta squad actually gasped as they spread along its edge and looked down in it. Victor drank in every detail as he said, "Okay. Let's get down there."

"How?" asked one of Delta squad.

"They must have a ladder somewhere," hypothesized Felix as he looked along the edge. He pointed further left. "There."

Sure enough, there was a blue ladder dropping down into the mine. Victor nodded and waved the men on. Felix and Dominic watched them for a moment, before Felix whispered, "I don't trust them. I think it's best if we stay behind. I don't like the thought of them having their loaded weapons pointed at our backs." He then marched on to descend into the mine.

Dominic followed in silence. He knew his captain had a right to be worried. But he didn't think _all_ of Delta squad was bad. Victor though… something was up.

As his feet touched the ground of the mine, he forgot these thoughts and was on full alert. They were deep in enemy territory now, and needed to be careful. As they walked around the mine, he switched the safety off on his suppressed SMG.

After checking out the first section of the mine, Felix jogged over to peer around the corner and look for enemies. Dominic was behind him, and soon most of Delta lined up against the stony wall, waiting for Felix's order to move forward. His voice crackled through his helmet speakers. "Okay, guys. Four brutes, walking this way. Beyond them, there seems to be a processing area. We can find some samples there. Who's got suppressed weapons?" Several signaled him that they did, Dominic was among the first. "Okay, get up front, and take them out when they get close. Wait for my mark."

Felix then moved out of the way and let Dominic and five of Delta squad line up near the corner. They could hear the monsters talking, and Dominic started to sweat. If the alarm was raised, they'd either be quickly killed, or worse… taken prisoner to be some chieftain's snack. He shuddered at the thought and readied himself. Just as the first brute began to turn the corner, Felix said, "Mark! Fire!"

The six suppressed weapons caught the brutes totally unaware, as they were quickly chewed up by the bullets. Victor tried to take control of the mission. "Good work, boys. Let's go."

Felix stopped him with a hand on the man's chest. "We have to hide the bodies. We don't want some curious brute finding these guys and raising the alarm while we're here in the middle of this mine."

Dominic couldn't see through the man's helmet, but he pictured the big burly man going red. He nodded and looked down. "Right. Um… Those with suppressed weapons come with me. The rest of you stay here and clean these up." The man then ran around the corner without checking for enemies first.

Felix and Dominic rolled their eyes as they followed the idiotic soldier. He would get himself killed. But then again… was that such a bad thing? Dominic laughed a little to himself at how Felix kept embarrassing Victor and putting him in his place. That was why he respected Felix so much: Unless you were of higher rank than Felix, he wouldn't take shit from you of any kind.

Victor, meanwhile, had run ahead and stopped at several carts scattered around in the next area. The others walked up, more alert and ready to fight as he sifted through the materials inside the cart with his weapon. Felix walked up and looked in the cart.

Rocks. Lots of them. Other carts were filled with them, too. So far, nothing seemed to stand out to them.

Victor glanced at Felix. "I don't know what to look for," he confessed. "I don't know if it'll be glowing or… or what."

"Keep looking through it. I have a feeling we'll know when we see it," said Felix. He then walked to the side with Dominic. "I'm going to radio back to Red. Let him know we're here and we're looking."

"Okay," replied Dominic as he went to look for samples with the rest of the group.

The rest of Delta squad, the ones cleaning up the bodies, walked back. They were covered in blood now and a little out of breath. One went up to Victor and said, "We dumped them in half-full carts of rocks and covered them up. At first glance they might not see them."

"Good work," said Victor. "And by the time the sun is up again we'll be gone. So hopefully it won't matter."

The man nodded silently in reply.

Dominic then looked at the cart in front of him and started looking around for some sort of stone that looked different from the rest. He shook his head as he looked through all the grey rocks. Everything looked the same. Shit. They had more important things to do them look at rocks. He walked over to his captain and said quietly, "To hell with this! We got more important things to do."

Felix nodded as he looked through some of his own rocks. "But, we have orders."

"Yeah, we also have priorities, sir."

Felix looked up at the angry Dominic. "I know." He sighed. "I'm… I don't know." He then shook his head and turned around to lean against the cart. He whispered, "I'm just… I'm so worried about Victor over there…"

Dominic nodded. He put a hand on his friend's shoulder and nodded. "We need you, sir. Felix."

Felix nodded and looked up at him. "I know." He stood up straight and hefted his weapon. "I think it's time we got moving." Dominic smiled behind his helmet visor as his leader marched over to Victor.

He didn't watch as they started arguing, but pretended to be looking for a sample. Meanwhile, he thought about what Felix had said. Victor was up to something. Personally, he believed the man wanted control of the men. The leader of the operation would certainly be greatly praised. Victor was a poor excuse for a soldier, but he wanted to be recognized and worshipped by others.

Felix was in the way.

What bothered Dominic, was thinking about how far Victor was willing to go to secure control of the unit. Would he intimidate? He was already doing that. Would he manipulate? Possibly. Would he kill? That was a disturbing question that needed an answer. But Dominic feared that by the time they got the answer… someone, meaning Felix, would be dead.

Dominic put his helmeted face in his hands and propped his uniformed elbows on the metal cart in front of him. "Oh, God…" he whispered to himself. They had enough to worry about without an officer going crazy.

"You alright there?" asked Felix as he walked up.

Dominic straightened. "Yeah. Just…tired."

Felix could always tell when Dominic was lying by his eyes. He craned forward, trying to see his eyes through his visor but couldn't. Straightening, he said, "Okay. Well, Victor's gonna give us the go-ahead to move forward. "

Dominic laughed a little. "You mean you forced him to give the go-ahead."

Felix laughed too. "Of course."

* * *

Minutes later, they were out of the mine. The land past the mine was flatter, less trees and foliage. All cut down by brutes.

The men were uneasy about walking on through the land beyond the mine. It was foreign compared to the couple miles surrounding their cave. They'd all travelled through there many times and were getting to know the land. This area was totally different and unfamiliar.

Felix spoke over the team's intercom. "Okay, boys. Let's stay on our toes and be alert. We're deep in enemy territory now."

"No shit," said Victor.

Dominic growled quietly in his helmet and shook his head, but kept walking. Far ahead, he saw buildings. Dominic keyed his mike, "Sir, buildings."

"Where?!" asked a Delta.

"Up there. See?" he said as he pointed, heart pounding.

The men all looked at a high up ridge at least several miles away. Their buildings were too far to have details made out, but they seemed to be in the typical brute fashion: uncivilized and decades behind advanced buildings of the day. The men wondered how they made it to space. Probably with the help of the Covenant and the Prophets… but those days were over.

Felix broke his train of thought. "Let's go." He then started walking along the path between the stumps of cut down trees and deep tread marks in the dirt.

"Whoa. What?" asked a Delta.

"I thought we were supposed to find a city," said another.

"Yeah, that's why we're here."

"Well…" he pointed. "found one. So let's go back to the cave!"

"No. We need to get closer. So we can pinpoint the exact location for the ships above," ordered their leader.

Victor was trying to decide whose side to take and was staying silent, looking back and forth between the arguing men. Dominic was again astonished by the man's idiocy. By now though, he should be used to it. Even expect it from the man.

Felix didn't wait for the man to say anything, just turned and started marching into the forest. Dominic, always wanting to support his leader and friend, followed him without hesitation. Then, they heard the trotting footsteps of Delta squad behind them.

* * *

After nearly an hour of careful travelling through the forest, they came out to a large clearing on a hill. The men all sat down on boulders and tree stumps as Victor and Felix looked at the city in the distance.

Dominic joined them and asked, "So, how close do we actually have to get? Like a mile away?"

Felix glanced at him, but didn't reply immediately. He sighed and said, "We need to get close enough, and set up the beacon, so that the ships overhead can unload on the beacon's location and destroy the city." He looked at him silently then.

Dominic took a moment to understand what he meant… and then understood with a sickening feeling. "You mean… in the city?!"

Felix looked at the other men quickly and walked him away from them and Victor. "Quiet! We don't want to tell them."

"Well they'll understand when we're right at the base of one of their buildings, sir!"

Felix shook him. "Quiet! We don't want them to panic or try to leave…" he glanced back again and looked at Victor for a moment longer. "We can do this. We'll just have to be very careful."

"How close does the beacon have to be?"

"Within the city itself, but it could be right at the edge. It should be no problem," he said and shrugged.

Dominic stepped back, as though he had just taken a blow. "'No problem'?! Sir, with all due respect, we're waling right into the hornet's nest! Hell yes it's a problem!" His voice was rising.

Felix squeezed his upper arm. "Shut up! We can do it, and we will. Or die trying."


	17. Chapter 17

**Hey guys! Yeah i decided to add onto this story for you guys! =) I also just wanted to let you know that my new story, _Reawakening,_ is now up!!! So, enjoy!**

* * *

Dominic kept a sharp eye as the group continued to walk through the trees toward the city. Only a half-hour had passed since they'd set out again, and they realized they were on an extremely tight schedule. When dawn came, which was in four hours, the brutes would awaken, and start working in the mine again. Then, they'd have to wait until nightfall again before they could get out again. That left plenty of time for them to get discovered, especially after they found the dead brute bodies. Dominic shuddered slightly at the thought of being discovered, but kept moving.

They'd decided it would be best if they stayed off the main path and continued through the trees. The dense jungle was thick and humid, and it clung to them viciously as they pushed their way through the foliage. Dominic smacked a large bug as it landed on his armor, leaving a greenish smear on the mud-covered armor. He outstretched his arms and looked at the thick material covering them.

_These have got to go,_ he decided, referring to his sleeves. He shook his head as they continued to walk toward the general direction of the city.

A Delta asked, "Do we even know where exactly we're going?"

Felix turned around a little as he kept walking. "We're headed to the ridge where the city is."

"And exactly where is that?" asked another Delta.

Felix growled and stopped to glare at the two marines. "You wanna take over?" The men recoiled back a ways.

"Cut 'em some slack," interjected Victor. "It's fair for them to ask questions." Felix turned around and glared at Victor. The other man smiled behind his visor. "The leader should be able to give them answers."

"Shit," whispered Dominic to himself as Felix stared down Victor. He thought there was going to be a fight, when he heard something. "Guys! What's that?" he asked quietly.

The soldiers stopped and listened, hearing the engines of brute vehicles. Felix dropped to a crouch and said over their COM system, "Get down! Dom, come here."

"Yes, sir," he replied as he followed Felix through the brush toward the main path. Behind him, he heard Victor coming along too. Dominic shook his head in frustration, but said nothing.

The trio stopped after only a few meters, near the road that cut through the forest. There was a bent in the road ahead, and beyond it they could see a rising cloud of dust. Then, three, then four, choppers raced around the corner. Three prowlers, fully loaded with brute troops followed them past the marines. The chopper wheels churned up the dirt along the path, making cuts in the ground that joined hundreds of others made by years of use. They were headed toward he mine, and a part of Dominic wondered if they'd found the bodies, but they couldn't worry about that now. In seconds, they'd passed them, and it grew quiet again.

"What the hell was that?" demanded Victor.

Felix shrugged. "Maybe reinforcements for the night guards at the mine. Or they found the bodies."

"Shit!" Victor said as he started to stand up.

Felix yanked him back down. "What are you doing?!"

"If they found the bodies, then we have to get out of here or we never will!" whispered Victor forcefully.

"No! I said they _might've_ found the bodies. You can't jump to conclusions!" Felix then shoved the man away. "We have a mission. I don't care if we have to hide in this forest for weeks; we're going to get it done!"

Felix then turned around and left Dominic and Victor alone near the path. Dominic followed almost immediately after his captain had left, leaving the Delta leader alone. He didn't really care what the man did.

They then regrouped with the rest of Delta. "Where's Vic?" asked one.

Felix sighed and showed little interest as he checked his weapon. "He's coming."

On cue, Victor came stumbling out through the foliage toward his group. He nodded to them and sighed, obviously tired. "Okay… let's go."

* * *

"Say… what do the brutes eat?" asked a Delta.

"Okay, why are you asking this?" said a second.

"I'm just wondering!"

"I heard they eat each other," said one.

"That's a myth! They eat humans!" argued another.

"Look around, jackass!" said the other in defense as he motioned around with his gun. "Humans aren't really rich in supply here."

"Well, maybe they keep people from the planet's they've conquered… I don't know."

Felix laughed. "I heard they eat thorn beasts. A buddy of mine was on Harvest and he said they _love_ thorn beasts."

The men mulled this over. One asked, "They taste any good?"

Felix shrugged. "I don't know." He turned around with a smile to face the man. "I've never had it."

"Is there any here?" asked Dominic.

"Maybe. Some think that they love it so much because thorn beasts are originally from here and they eat it all the time. Others think that brutes love them because they're a delicacy on other planets. I don't really know."

"If we found one, would you eat it?" asked Dominic.

Felix thought this through and then said, "Maybe. I'm just hoping the food we have back at the cave is enough to last us a while. Then we won't have to find out what brutes eat."

Silence stretched between them for a while before someone asked, "Anyone got food?"

Someone groaned. "All you think about is food!"

"Well I'm hungry—"

"Hey, shut up!" yelled Victor. "We're all hungry."

Dominic shook his head as they continued walking. Felix stopped and turned around to face the rest of the men, stopping extra long on Victor. "We should rest a while. We've been going hard all night." To the men, he said, "Okay, five minutes! Then, we hit it extra hard! Five minutes…" he trailed off as they heard more motors. "Dom, come on," he said, waving them forward.

Dominic followed without hesitation as they moved through the foliage again. Near the path, they stopped and waited for the choppers and prowlers to show themselves. After a few seconds, two choppers and two prowlers came roaring from the direction of the mine. Felix and Dominic watched them in silence as they passed.

After they'd gone, Dominic looked at his captain. "What do you think?"

"Let's move back a little," said Felix quietly. Once they were a little ways back, he said, "Looks like they were changing up the guard for the mine."

"Is that bad?" asked Dominic, nervous.

"Only if that's the last guard change before the slaves get back. That means, that we have less time than we thought." He looked at Dominic and shrugged. "But, I don't know. Maybe they change every four hours. I don't know, but we need to keep moving."

"Yeah," said Dominic.

The two marines then walked back to where the rest of the group was. Felix let them have their five minutes of rest, and then got them to their feet to move again. He then decided it'd be best if they kicked it up to a jog to get to the city faster. Dominic had to agree. Dawn was rapidly approaching and they were running out of time. They hadn't even planted the beacon yet!

* * *

A half-hour later, Felix stopped them at the edge of the tree line. All of them crouched down behind boulders, trees, and foliage… only a few hundred meters from the edge of the brute city.

The buildings towered above them and seemed to be made of stone. Prowlers and choppers drove in and out of the town entrance, which was a large gate. The whole city was boxed in by a wall, which had several guards standing around it armed with carbines.

"Oh, shit," whispered Victor as he looked at the city.

For once, Dominic had to agree. This was going to be tough. He looked at Felix. "What do we do?" he asked.

Felix's mouth hung open momentarily before he answered, "Um…" he looked around the base of the wall. "See that patch of trees?" he asked as he pointed at them. "Let's get there first."

Dominic looked at it and winced slightly. The trees were nearly a hundred yards away and the guards were constantly keeping an eye out. It would almost be impossible to get by without getting spotted. He grabbed Felix's arm and shook his head. "Sir, this is a bad idea. We'll never get there without getting killed."

Felix looked at it with an intense stare and sighed deeply. "You're right." He turned around and looked at the other ODSTs behind him. "Victor," he said, getting the man's attention. "we need to make a distraction if we're going to get into that city."

The man stepped forward and looked at the guarded walls and then around the forest stretching before the great city. He nodded toward two large trees standing next to the road on either side. "I bet if we knocked those two trees over that'd attract some attention."

Dominic looked at the two giants. "Yeah… but how do we do that?"

Victor smiled and looked at the trees as he nodded a few times. "I gotta plan." He then turned around and barked, "Ryan! Vincent! Come with me."

Felix and Dominic watched them go and looked at each other. Maybe Victor could prove himself.

* * *

The men then rested as they waited for Victor, Ryan, and Vincent to return. After a while the three soldiers came trudging back through the foliage, laughing to themselves. Felix stood and met them. "How'd it go? What's… what's so funny?"

Victor laughed and pointed towards the entrance to the city. Everyone turned to look a group of slave brutes leaving the city with their brute guards. Victor explained, "We planted several grenades at the base of the two trees and tied a trip wire to each of the pins. The trip wire runs across the path, so when the brutes walk through it, the grenades will explode and the trees will fall across the path."

Dominic smiled behind his visor despite himself. Victor was very resourceful and clever. "Good work." He turned around and said to the rest of the men. "Wait for my signal, then we go."

"Yes, sir," they replied.

Dominic watched the procession walk toward the trees until they were almost out of view and he thought their trap had failed. Then, they heard a series of explosion, the sound of hundreds of branches breaking, and then the crashing of the two trees. Dominic thought he might've heard the sound of several brutes screaming too, but he couldn't be sure. Felix pointed toward the wall, and Dominic watched. The brute guards looked in the direction of great hammering and ran toward the front of the wall, curious.

"Now's our chance! Go!" yelled Felix.

The group of ODSTs then ran across the open ground and into the trees. Dominic prayed they hadn't been spotted and then looked at the two leaders. Victor looked up at the wall. "We gotta go. Soon, they'll send for reinforcements and for some to search the trees."

Felix looked up at the wall and then at Victor. "Cover us while we get the beacon ready," he said.

"Alright. Delta! Spread out!" barked Victor.

Dominic then watched as Felix pulled a sphere out the size of a softball. He opened down the middle and revealed a complex network of wire and dials. Then he turned knobs, connected wires, typed in codes, and switched switches, before closing it again. Dominic watched a locking mechanism click shut, and a small red light started beeping.

"Okay," said Felix. "We're good to go. Once this red light stops flashing, all the data will have gone through to the ships above, and they'll hammer this town into nothing."

Dominic was starting to get uneasy. "Yeah so… let's get rid of that thing."

He watched his captain get to his feet and job to an opening in the trees. Then, he threw the sphere will all his might over the wall and into the city limits. Dominic then noticed something at his waist light up: some sort of handheld device. Felix grabbed it and his eyes widened.

On the device, a countdown had begun, counting down to the moment when the red light would stop flashing and the firing would begin. According to the device, they had forty-five seconds before the city was toast.

"Victor!" yelled Felix as he ran past Dominic, hauling him to his feet. "Victor! Run! We gotta go! Now!"

Victor watched the captain run across the open ground for a few seconds before jumping to his feet. "Let's go, Delta!"

The brute guards watched a large group of marines run from a patch of trees only feet from their wall. The alien captain immediately ordered them to fire, but it was too late. The marines had just sprinted into the cover of the trees, and were running past the foliage as fast as they humanly could.

_Thirty seconds left…_

Dominic and the others panted as they ducked under branches and jumped over roots of trees. There was no telling how wide a radius of destruction the bombardment could create. They had to get away. A delta stumbled and fell to the ground in front of Dominic and Felix, but they quickly hauled him up and continued running.

_Twenty seconds left…_

The brutes watched the disappearing marines with dwindling interest, and then looked again at the two collapsed trees blocking the road. Several were dead, and someone would pay the price for that. Behind them, some of the guards spotted the beacon, with its rapidly blinking red light, on the ground. They examined closely, and wondered what the humans had left them.

_Ten seconds…_

Dominic glanced behind him at the city and then up into the air. Several large fireballs were falling from the sky at breakneck pace. He willed himself to run even faster away from the destruction that was about to befall the city. Felix called out, "Eight… seven… six…"

_Five…_

The brutes looked up at the incoming projectiles, finally realizing their fate.

_Four…_

The marines continued their flight through the foliage away from the city.

_Three…_

A brute yelled a warning to the rest of the guards, who threw their weapons away and jumped over the walls to get away from the city.

_Two… _

Dominic glanced back again and could almost swear the fireballs were only inches above the city.

_One._

The massive projectiles smashed into the stone buildings of the city, crushing everything within them. The structure toppled down as more of the fireballs rained down and hit the lower parts of the city too. Brutes ran in every direction, only to be consumed by the massive flame engulfing the entire city. Stone was smashed to pebbles and sand was super heated into tiny pieces of glass that flew in every direction. No one survived…

The marines were thrown to the ground as the ground lurched beneath them. Behind them, the city was a massive crater. Smashed into oblivion by the UNSC projectiles and firepower. They each lie on the ground in shock as they watched the city burn and continue to crumble from the intense heat and power still lingering there. Dominic could almost feel the heat from where they were.

But, the mission was accomplished. One city successfully destroyed.


End file.
